The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective
by Savagekitty
Summary: What if the roles had been switched? What if a Goblin Queen had fallen in love with the boy? Given him certain powers? RATING CHANGED FOR A LATER CHAPTER!
1. Chapter 1

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

A/N: This one shot came about after finding some awesome arts from a deviant artist who goes by Saniika. Here is one of my favorite pieces (remove the spaces) saniika. deviantart. com/ art/ Jareth- 84313755

It was from a contest for the Labyrinth Club on Deviant Art. It was asked, what if Jareth and Sarah switched places?

This story was not apart of that contest. All person mentioned in this story are mentioned or worked on Labyrinth the Movie. I own none of these people, their names, or anything else I could maybe be sued for.

* * *

Jareth stared at his typewriter willing it, with almost an obsessed quality, to write something. He needed an idea, any idea for his next book and it was almost driving him to the point of madness. Or was he already mad? He couldn't tell anymore. He kicked at the little balled up wads of paper that seemed to cluster around him like chicks to the mother hen. They had varying ranges of stories on them, but they never seemed to be the right story. He leaned back in his rolling chair, sighing and looked over his bookcases. He had seven of them crammed full of fantasy stories only. Some held little figures from his stories or from his favorite books. One shelf held awards for his writing. One shelf of the bookcase closest to him held only two books and three manuscripts for movie adaptations. He sighed again and put a hand over his eyes, his leg crossing the other and he leaned back in this fassion, tapping his leg with his free hand.

He was a 26 year old man, and in reality, had accomplished more in his life then most of his peers. He had been the youngest fantasy author in Britain to win several major awards before he was 18. The books that seemed to leer at him from their shelf, paid for his college degree (with honors) AND his sister's beauty school. His books, which were still in print after ten years, and their movies had: given him an nice allowance, his flat in London, his parent's house in Kent, and a respected reputation. He could live without the reputation. He had yet to write a new book since the last one came out eight years ago. It seemed as if his creative juices had dried up, leaving him a dry and empty shell of a man.

Jareth Williams looked at his typewriter and then pulled the sheet out of it, balling it up, and tossing it behind him. He liked using this simple machine to write because it made him feel like a real writer. He had to work to type and correct his mistakes. His laptop was used to check email from his publishers, that was about it. Jareth stood and went to what was his kitchen and made himself another cup of tea. He was waiting for the kettle when he heard the elevator start up. A new tenant to the flat upstairs?

His flat was in a popular part of London, where a lot of artists lived. He lived on the second floor of an old office building, the first floor was rented by two lesbians that were into organic art, they had a whole garden in the back lot with 'living sculptures'. The third floor was vacant. The only two ways up to his flat were the stairs, which no one used, and the service elevator. Jareth looked at it as his twin sister, Irene, rolled up the door awkwardly with one hand, her other arm around her son on her hip. She gave Jareth a look and came marching into his flat. He knew that look. He had forgotten to do something, or at least she thought he had forgotten something.

"Hello, Ire." He said as he poured himself a cup of tea, "Have a cuppa?"

"No, I will not have a cuppa, I'm late!" she said tartly, putting Toby in the crib that Jareth kept set up for his nephew. She dumped his diaper bag next to the mesh box and turned to stare daggers at her twin, "You were suppose to pick him up an hour ago!"

Jareth stirred cream into his tea calmly. She did this almost every time. She would promise to ask Jareth to watch Toby, she never would, and would come marching in to his flat or call him up, mad, "I wasn't. You never told me I was suppose to watch Toby tonight. No message, no text message, nothing." He was used to it by now, no matter how much it irked him.

She glared at him and then threw up her hands, "For the love of Pete!"

"Speaking of Pete, how is Robert?" Jareth leaned on the counter, sipping from his mug. In many ways, he and his sister were identical. They both had honey colored hair, both stylishly cut. He was her practice head for male haircuts, which he didn't mind at all. They were both tall and thin, though Irene had more curves now, since she had Toby. They both had light blue eyes, though Jareth's left eye looked brown, in grade school he had been in a fight that left it permanently dilated. They both had a good work ethic, were very loving and honest. That was where their similarities ended. Jareth was calm, thoughtful and always had his head in a book. Irene was loud, businesslike, and had the imagination of a rock. If Jareth hadn't suggest she name his nephew Toby, she would have named him Robert Jr. Robert was a little torched that his son was named after a dog, but Jareth, calmly explaining Toby was not a dog's name, but the name of a very famous character from Shakespeare. Knowing his brother-in-law would rather die then look up anything having to do with books, he would never guess his son was named after a comedic drunkard. Jareth had a laugh at this over the first year of his nephew's existence on this earth, but now the joke was over with and Toby was just Toby.

"He's pissed, that's how he is. We had these tickets lined up for months, Jare! You could have phoned to say you weren't picking him up! I waited an hour!"

"Again, dear sister, you never told me I had to watch Toby tonight. By the way, you never DO ask anymore, you just tell me I'm suppose to be watching him. And as MUCH as I love him… I'm busy."

Irene automatically looked over at his typewriter, it's snow covering of paper wads and then back at Jareth, eyebrows raised, "Yah?"

"YES!" Jareth said, a little put out, "I'm writing tonight! I've allotted this time to write and I will write, damn it!"

"DAMN!"

Jareth looked a little startled at Toby, who was standing at the playpen wall and grinning his little toothy grin, "DAMN DAMN!"

"Oh bugger," Irene muttered, "Did I mention Toby started talking?"

"Great." Jareth muttered as Toby loudly started chanting, DAMN! Over and over. His father would just LOOOOVE that.

Irene walked over to the typewriter, ignoring her son, and picked up a paper wad, opening it. She read it over and turned to Jareth, "Goblin Queen?"

Jareth sighed, "It's just an idea. I had a dream last night about a queen and I thought, I haven't written about goblins yet, lets try it."

"Oh great, my brother is writing porn now."

"It wasn't THAT kind of dream, Ire. God, you pervert."

She grinned at him and wiggled her eyebrows, "Look, will you watch Toby for me? I will owe you big-time."

"You already owe me from the last time, but I'll just add it to your tab. Go… have a good time. I'll just give him some children's Tylenol and he will sleep and I can work."

Irene gave him a dirty look, but said nothing. She didn't want to admit she did the same thing time to time in desperation. She waved at him and went back into the elevator.

"You know, you really should repaint the inside of this elevator, its creepy."

"I will not. Brain Froud painted that to look like that M. C. Escher's staircase picture called Relativity. I like it and so do Shari and Shelley. I'm just sorry Brian had to move out. I took some pictures of what he did upstairs before they repainted it to sell it."

She looked around at the black and white walls, "It's creepy." And with that, she slid the door down and went down to her car.

Jareth sighed and looked over at Toby, who was now gnawing on the edge of his playpen. Jareth blinked at Toby, went to his DVD player, popped in one of the few DVDs he bought for Toby, and went back his typewriter as Toby became entranced by 'Charlie and Lola'.

* * *

Jareth was jerked out of his writing streak when Toby started screaming. He looked around the room a little dazed. The DVD player had stopped, outside, a storm raged, and the thunder had scared Toby, who had been sleeping at the bottom of the playpen. Jareth went to him and picked him up, "Aw, it's ok, mate. Just a little thunder. Nothing to be scared of."

Toby only seemed to scream louder and louder. Sometimes Jareth had the feeling that Toby didn't really care for him, this being one of those times. Jareth walked Toby around, tried another DVD, changed him, tried to feed him, but nothing would help. Jareth could feel his creative flow draining away with even screaming cry Toby produced. This seemed to engrave Jareth's suspicions Toby didn't like his uncle.

"OK! Time for the Tylenol!"

He took Toby into his room, the only part of the flat that was enclosed, besides the bathroom. It was small, it only held his bed and a standing lamp, but it had double doors out onto a balcony that overlooked the garden. The storm rattled the doors now and lightening flashed outside. Jareth set Toby on the large double bed and drew the curtains over the doors so the flash of lightening couldn't scare Toby again. He went into the bathroom, opening the medicine cabinet and cussed. He was out of baby Tylenol. He rubbed his forehead, downed a few aspirin for himself to fight the headache the screaming kid had brought on and went back out into the bedroom. Toby was still where Jareth had laid him. He picked him up again and started to walk around, "How about a story for bedtime? Hmmm?"

Toby only cried.

"Ok, well… ok. Once upon a time… um… oh. There was a good boy. This boy was very handsome and a good writer and had many, many successful titles. But the boy had an ungrateful… um…brother. And this brother was always being mean to the boy, making him take care of the brother. What the brother didn't know was that the boy knew the Queen of the Goblins. She had fallen in love with the boy and had granted the boy certain powers. All she had to do was wish and that wish came true!"

Toby cried on.

"One day, after the boy had a very long day of writing and housework, the mean brother made the boy do something the boy hated to do and the boy got fed up! He said, I wiiish! I WISH! I wish the Goblin Queen would come and take you faaaar away! And she did and the boy was happy. The end!"

Toby kept screaming then threw up on Jareth's shirt. Jareth sighed in frustration and took Toby into the bathroom, removing his clothes, gave him a quick wash and put him in his favorite striped pajamas. He took Toby back into the bedroom and laid him down on the bed. Toby was reduced to hiccupping and making little sad moans. Jareth rolled his eyes and changed his own shirt, throwing the barf shirt into his hamper.

"Go ahead, cry yourself to sleep. This is the last time I watch you."

He could have sworn Toby gave him a dirty look. He covered the whimpering kid up with his little fuzzy blanket. Jareth rubbed his forehead, looking down at the little lump, "I knew you didn't like me, you little git. Cry all you want. I really do wish the goblins would take you away. Right now" He crossed to the door, shut off the light and went back into the living room. He was halfway across the room but stopped. Toby had become silent. Jareth turned, worried. Toby never just stop crying like that. Horrible thoughts crossed into his mind, Toby rolling off the bed, hurting his head, breaking his neck, crib death! Jareth rushed back in, his hand hitting the light switch, but it didn't come on. Jareth could see the lump Toby made under his blanket wiggle in the crack of light in the curtains.

"Toby?" He crossed into the room as he heard a giggle. It wasn't Toby's. Jareth had heard his nephew laugh millions of times. This laugh was warped and girlish. "Toby!" He grabbed the blanket and jumped back. Toby was not on the bed. Panic swam through Jareth as he thought he heard another laugh. Something moved behind him and he jerked, turning around. He jerked left, another sound. Another laugh and then another. The storm outside grew fiercer as the patio doors trembled. There was movement by the bed and then by the bathroom door.

"TOBY!" Jareth yelled as the patio doors blew open. The curtains flew back as a giant crow flew in, flying into Jareth's face. Jareth cried out and threw his arms up to protect his eyes. The flapping against his arms stopped and he lowered his arms as a shadow fell over him. His eyes widened as a woman stood in the doorway to his patio, a faint rain of glitter and crow feathers fell around her and blew in through the doorway. The storm outside was no more, thought Jareth couldn't see past the woman.

She was beautifully wild, her skin creamy peach, her dark hair long and tangled with braids and crow feathers. She didn't look any older then 22, but her eyes were endlessly deep, older then time, and piercingly dark. Her clothes were flowing around her, His eyes traveled from her high collared deconstructed cape clasped across her shoulders, a dark poet's shirt under half rotted black armor and what looked like riding pants tucked into dark boots. Around her neck and nestled between her breasts was a pendant that looked like an upside-down crescent moon with some sort of crest on it. Her gloved hands where on her hips and her head was tilted at a jaunty angle. Her body language told him exactly who and what she was. He had dreamed about her. He had written about her. His eyes widened in shock.

"You're her! You're the Goblin Queen!"

* * *

A/N 2: This is only a one shot story but if I get enough reviews for it, I could be presueded to write more for it!


	2. Chapter 2

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 2

"**Jareth, I can not believe you would do this out in public!"**

"**You're hurting me!"**

"**I should do more then just drag you home. Do you know how embarrassing it is to come around a corner with all of my friends and find you wearing this?" **

"**Come on, Irene! I wasn't doing anything bad! It's not like I smoke!" **

**Through the twisty back alleys of their home town. They were about a block from their modest little home where Jareth and sister lived with their parents. Irene stopped at the mention of smoking and glares down at her brother, who, dressed in a white poet's shirt and black pants, is holding the cloak she had ripped from his shoulders earlier. She knew he disappeared to the park almost everyday after school. She had seen him sewing on this stupid cloak. But she had never seen what he did in the park. When she and her friends came around through the shrubs, looking for a good hiding spot to light up… she didn't want to think about it. **

**She pushed him back into the wall, his head bouncing a little of the bricks, "If you even think…"

* * *

  
**

"Give him back to me." Jareth stared at the woman standing at his patio door. The air around her streamed in the moonlight with glitter. Hadn't it just been storming not too long ago? But now it was clear and clean, the air smelling of the lavender in the garden below. She walked a few steps into the room, her cape swishing around her, the glitter being blown further into the room. Jareth could see it coming to rest on his bed, falling into cracks of his wood floor and disappearing in the carpet that lay under his bed. Her shadow seemed to loom over him.

"What's said, is said." She smiled, her hands on her hips. Her voice was light, but he could hear the taunting quality that if he knew her socially, would grate his nerves. He felt the fear in his chest tighten. What had he done. Didn't he know how careless words could be dangerous? How many times did he write those words in his books? This woman, with her dark eyes that could be warm, her creamy skin and playful mouth. This woman was dangerous and she had Toby.

"I didn't mean it."

"Oh? You didn't?" She smiled, her eyebrows up in mock surprise. She had heard this before, he knew that much. She tilted her head to the side as if she were a bird and he was a tasty worm. She stepped towards him, swaying her hips. She was suddenly so close, looking up at him, "Forget him, Jareth. Forget all the trouble he has caused. Annoying you when you have tried to write. Your sister dumping him on you all the time." She ran her soft gloved hand over his shoulder slowly. She watched it then turned her eyes up, her mouth pouting softly, "I have a present for you."

She brought her other hand up. During this time he froze, his nostrils barley flaring as he breathed. His eyes darted to her hand as she held up a crystal.

"What is it?" He asked softly.

"Just a crystal…" She answered just as softly. He could smell her hair, it smelled of clean cotton, a soft flower he couldn't place, and a musky deep smell that made him shiver.

"If you turn it this way…" She rolled it over her knuckles, "You can see your dreams." She looked to him and then to the crystal, "I see a man with millions of fans, admirers from all over the planet. His stories shared by generations of children. I see a boy who reads his favorite book at midnight under his covers, wishing how he could write like his idol…"

"Stop." Jareth hissed. His breath was rigid, "Stop it. I want my nephew. I want him now."

She sighed, annoyed as she turned away from him, the crystal orb popping like a bubble, "No."

He grit his teeth. He had enough of this stranger's games and parlor tricks. Advancing on her in a way he had never done in his life, he reached out to grab her, but she was gone! He turned suddenly to find a gloved hand at his throat. He made a sound as the hand closed around his throat, pressing his Adam's apple and windpipe. A wet sound of fear and protest came out of his mouth before he could stop it. He was a good foot taller then her but she easily made the reach. He fell to his knees, his face slowly turning pink and then red, his eyes tearing up.

"Such a pity…" She sneered. She pressed close to him, her hand tightening, "Do not fuck with me, little man. You made your wish and now you must deal with the consequences. Unless…"

He fell to the floor, gasping as she stepped back. He gripped his throat, massaging it. He looked up at her as she walked around him slowly. Her height was artificial. The boots she wore, hidden by the cape, were spiked heels. The few times he had seen his sister wear them and his own mother, he remembered how they used to sigh with content once they were off. The heels made a hard clack, clack, clack, on the soft wood of his bedroom floor.

"Unless," he croaked.

"Unless you wish to fight for him." She turned, looking back down at him, her mouth pulled into a smirk. Her teeth glistened like a predators. He stood slowly as she pointed out the patio doors. The clean air suddenly had the smell of dust and decay. He took a deep breath, looking where she pointed. Instead of the buildings and the few trees from the garden, he saw the desert like wasteland and further a sprawling never ending labyrinth. In the center of it all lay a city with a castle tall enough to over see everything.

He turned to her, unsurprised when he saw they stood on a hill overlooking the maze and castle. His home was gone, his things. Just her, the Goblin Queen, and him, a human man. He crossed his arms, frowning.

"Run like a rat to find my nephew?"

"Who said humans were idiots?"

She walked through the dust, but didn't cling to her as it did him. In fact, with her heels, she walked very well in this soft earth. He wasn't surprised. She held up a hand, motioning to a large ornate wall clock that hung in thin air. There were thirteen large numbers. The both hands pointed at the thirteen. He made a noise at the clock. It all seemed so over the top. At least she hadn't turned into some kind of animal.

"You have thirteen hours in which to solve my labyrinth. Failure to do so will allow me to keep Toby and you to go home, sad and alone, trying to write another book. Another book that will never be finished, may I add."

She held up a crystal, "I hold your dreams in my hand, Jareth. You lose Toby and them if you fail."

"Losing my dreams is nothing if I lose Toby too." Jareth spat.

"We'll see. We'll see when your baby nephew becomes one of us forever… such a pity…"

She seemed to fade away as she spoke until Jareth was alone. He turned to the labyrinth and frowned, "All or nothing."

* * *

**He pushed her back, "then don't push me around! I know a lot more about you, Ire. So what I do on my time is none of your business!" He sniffled a little, his nose bloody from a fall he had taken after Irene hit him. He held his cloak and what was wrapped in it close to him. He stumbled a little, walking past Irene. She sighed, rubbed the back of her head, starting to feel bad now. She always did after she smacked him around. He was so… pathetic…**

"**Why do you have to be so weird? Why can't you just be like other boys?"**

"**Because it's boring." He said, looking back at her, then went stumbling through the ally back towards home.**

**Since he had found his favorite book, he had read and re-read it until it was held together by tape and a prayer. That night, after his sister found him in the park, he set the book at the corner of his desk and took out a clean sheet of paper. He looked at the book and then set pencil to paper, beginning the first of two books that would change his life.**

"**All or nothing…" he whispered as the words flowed from the graphite and yellow wood. He never did go back to the park in his cloak…**

**

* * *

  
**

Jareth stumbled from the thorny bushes, coming upon the large wall that stretched in both directions. As he looked up and down, trying to find a gate, this memory came back to him. He stopped at the thought, unblinking for nearly a minute before putting a hand over his mouth. How the hell had he forgotten the incident and the book that jump started his creativity? The book. That fucking book. He remembered the worn red cover and the thick yellowed pages. The cramped type and the gold lettering on the front of the book and on it's spine.

"The Labyrinth!"


	3. Chapter 3

Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective  
Savagekitty

Chap. 3

** The book. That fucking book. He remembered the worn red cover and the thick yellowed pages. The cramped type and the gold lettering on the front of the book and on it's spine.  
"The Labyrinth!"**

He leaned against the wall and put a hand over his face, cussing loudly, his free hand fisted and hitting the wall several times before he stopped.  
"How could I forget it? Why did I forget and what have I been writing! I almost plagiarized a story! UGH!"  
Since the movies for his books had come out, everyone wanted to know when he would write the next one. Will it be a new story? What will happen to his characters? Since that time, he had no clue. He had just been coasting along on the movies praise and the books.  
"This is some night. Really some night! I sit down with a nice cuppa tea and then wham, Toby is taken away by some bloody psycho bitch in a cape and I realize I'm about to rip off one of my favorite books…" As he ranted, he walked along side the wall, looking so some sort of opening. The wall stretched for miles in both directions. There was nothing other then the wall, the dead scraggly grass and dead trees. Everything seemed dead. He thought, if this were a movie this part would be filmed with a red lens. He stopped, his feet hurt and he was parched. The air here was so dry, like it had been when he went to Hollywood in United States for the filming of one of his movies.  
"This is shit. Such shit! Where are all the openings?! Bloody hell, Toby. If your fucking mother hadn't dumped you on me again…"  
Jareth was jerked out of his rant by a gravely voice from nearby. He hadn't noticed the reflection pond or the little man at stood at the edge, peeing into it. He was singing loudly about drinking and naked women. Jareth couldn't believe his eyes as the dwarf shook himself and buttoned his pants, stepping away from the pond. He grabbed a bug sprayer off the ground and waddled to the wall where Jareth noticed large white insects flying around. A dwarf! Weren't they suppose to be helpful towards people on quests? Jareth cleared his throat,  
"Thank God, can you help me? I'm trying to find a way into the labyrinth."  
The little man looked to Jareth and paused, his eyes growing wide. Surprise was replaced by anger.  
"ANOTHER ONE!"  
Jareth blinked as the little man advanced on him, "You… you… Get out of here! Shoo! We don't need another one of you hanging around here!"  
The little man kept spraying his bug spray at Jareth, making him back up. Jareth was a good four feet taller then the man, so the spray didn't do much except get his knees dusty. In any case, Jareth kept backing up, confused.  
"What are you on about?" Jareth cried.  
"Every time she gets bored, WHAM! Another man in the labyrinth. You just leave right now and nobody gets hurt!!"  
"GAH!" Jareth fell over a root, falling on his behind. The little man loomed over him, pointing the sprayer in his face, "Get out of the Underground if you know what's good for you!"  
"I CAN'T!" Jareth put his hands up, "I have to save my nephew!"  
"You might as well face that he will become one of us! You'll never get him back. They always stay. Save yourself!"  
Jareth grit his teeth and swept his legs under the dwarf. The dwarf fell to the side, his limbs sprawling in every direction. Jareth stood up, kicking the sprayer out of the dwarf's reach. He panted, looking over at the dwarf.  
"I thought you people were suppose to be helpful!"  
The dwarf struggled to get up, "I am being helpful! Leave the Underground! How much more helpful can I get? LEAVE! NOW!"  
"I can't, you little gnome! My nephew is at that bloody castle and I have to rescue him from that crazy bitch!"  
The little man seemed to go livid with this comment. Jareth opened his mouth to say something more, but the little man launched himself at him. Jareth cussed and moved aside. The dwarf crashed headlong through a large gate. The doors flew open with an echoing bang. The doors shuttered at they slammed into the stone. Jareth peeked around the archway and looked at the dwarf, who was laying on the ground. Jareth shuffled over to him, weary it could be a trick and kneeled down. He poked the dwarf in the shoulder several times.  
"Hey…hey, mate. Are you ok?"  
There was no answer. Jareth looked at where he was. He was inside the maze now. Well, the dwarf was helpful, in a round-about way. Jareth sighed and stood, "Well, thanks." The dwarf said nothing. Jareth shrugged and started off down the maze. He started trotting to put as much ground between him and the unconscious dwarf. Soon the dwarf was just a speck, and then gone all together.  
Like the outside of the labyrinth, the inside wasn't any better, except maybe now Jareth had walls on either side of him. There were straggly dead grass thrusting weakly through the reddish dirt, tree branches littered the walkway, thought, Jareth had no idea where they came from because no trees were hanging over the wall. There was lichen, at least he thought it was. It looked like it, growing in large clumps on the moist looking walls that was covered in a fine spray of glitter. Though… it had eyeballs. He stopped to examine the plant, but when it moved to look back at him, he stood quickly and tried not to look at it again.  
He checked his watch. Two hours. Two hours! He stopped and stared at his watch. How had two hours passed and he was no closer to getting further into the maze then he had when he was first brought here!  
"Bloody HELL! There are no openings! What am I suppose to do?!"  
"'Ello."  
Jareth jumped and looked around. He thought the dwarf had followed him. There was no sight of anything down the path of the maze, except maybe the creepy eye lichen. He hoped to God those couldn't talk or he would just break down and go crazy now. He looked at the wall and spotted a bit of blue on it. He kneeled down and came eye to eye with a blue worm.  
The blue worm was rather cute looking. It was maybe two inches long, with a white belly. It had hair, like a wooly-bear caterpillar, but it grew in an unfortunate way. Three tufty bunches of wooly hair grew on his head, bright blue like his body. He wore a little scarf around his neck, making Jareth wonder, how does a worm put a scarf on?  
"Did… did you just say 'ello?"  
"I did! 'Ello! Why not come inside for a nice cuppa tea? Meet the missus?"  
"Oh…" Jareth was temped. He could use a tea very badly, but several things prevented him from taking the invitation, "Thank you… no. I am in a hurry. I'm trying to get through the labyrinth. Do you know the way, by chance?"  
"No, sorry. I'm just a worm. Lived 'ere as a kid and now just me and the missus live 'ere."  
"Oh…" Jareth said, a little deflated. Hope hopped away like a scared rabbit. "Well… how about a new path then. I have been walking for a while and can't find any openings."  
"Oooh golly. This labyrinth is full of 'em. Not looking right, are you? Come inside! Meet the missus! We never get visitors."  
"Thank you, no. What do you mean I'm not looking right?"  
"Like I said, mate. This labyrinth is full of openings, like the one just across the way."  
Jareth look over his shoulder at the opposite wall. It looked solid enough. Jareth looked back at the worm, a little weary. After the dwarf, maybe his luck had hit another creature bent on hurting him.  
"Mate, I have to say…"  
"Go on! Try it!" The worm urged.  
Jareth stood, wincing at kneeling for too long and went to the wall, feeling silly as he put his arms out. He stepped forward and when he hands met nothing, he laughed. It was an optical illusion! After reading so many fantasy books, how had he been so stupid! Nothing is as it seemed! That was certainly true for this place. He looked up and down his new path and started off in a chosen direction.  
"WAIT!"  
Jareth paused and looked back at the worm. The worm crept forward, "Don't go that way!"  
"Oh… Oh ok! Thank you very much! I'm sorry I couldn't meet your wife. I'm on a deadline." He went in the opposite direction, running full out to make up time. He was out of earshot by the time the worm said, "Nice fella. Very polite. Thank goodness he didn't go down that way, or he would 'ave ended up at that 'orrible castle…"

* * *

Another hour later saw Jareth leaning on a wall, vomiting. He had ran until he thought his lungs would burst. He hadn't ran like that… ever! He wasn't one for athletics, that was always Irene's area. He leaned his forehead to the cool wall for a moment before kicking dirt over his mess. He took a moment to steady himself before looking around. The maze had changed from the wet glittery walls to thick stone bricks in different sizes. The walls on both side were broken by thick stone posts with decorative stone animal heads on the top. At least there was no eye lichen or glitter. Also, the sky had grown blue. Maybe it had been sunrise when he started? He didn't want to think about it. What he did think about was how many openings this part of the labyrinth had. So many openings he was getting confused. He stopped after half an hour of wandering around and looked through his pockets for something helpful. Handkerchief, mints, wallet, loose change, and miracle of miracles, a pencil! He did a little dance when he found his lucky pencil stub with a useable tip and marked an archway, going through it. He did this several times, sometimes marking an archway, sometimes a stone square on the ground. It was very useful. He congratulated himself on a job well done, until he went up some steps and through an archway, only to find a dead end. He returned to the mark he made on the ground and stared at it.  
It was pointing in the wrong direction.  
"Son of a BITCH!"  
He threw his pencil on the ground, looking around for the person responsible for changing his mark. How many time had that happened? Had he just been wandering aimlessly then?  
"This isn't FAIR!" He shouted to the air, "Someone's been changing me MARKS!"  
"Well, life isn't fair, is it?"  
Jareth made a very unmanly sound and turned towards the voice. Where the stairs and the dead ends had been now there was an archway into a little courtyard. Two men stood in front of two doors. Jareth stepped through the archway, "But there were stairs and… this was a dead end!"  
"No, friend. The dead end is behind you."  
Jareth turned and saw the man was right. There was a solid wall behind him.  
"For God sake.." Jareth said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Of course the labyrinth would change. It wouldn't want him to get the center. He should have been prepare for things like this to happen. He sighed and looked at the two men. They were about his own height and both dressed as American Indians. Jareth had watched westerns as a kid, the Indians always had big head dresses and wore deer skin pants.  
These two had the big eagle feather headdresses and the fringed deerskin pants, but the men were as white as a sheet of paper and blonder then a playboy bunny. Jareth looked around, seeing no way out of this courtyard, he figured he would have to go through one of the doors.  
He sighed, "Ok, what do I have to do?"  
The two men looked at each other and then back at Jareth, their expressions identical.  
"Well," said the one of the left, "You must go through a door. But one door leads to safety while the other leads to certain doom!"  
"I pick the door that doesn't lead to certain doom. I win." Jareth said, and stepped forward.  
"HEY! Not so easy… you boob…" The man on the right said.  
"Come on, we hardly ever have fun. We even got these new outfits." The one on the left said.  
Jareth rubbed the bridge of his nose again. This place was just trying to give him a brain embolism. He looked at the two, he had to pick a door, one was safe, the other not. He went to the wall and sat down, looking at the two men still. He figured if he had to think, he could rest while he did.  
"So this is a logic puzzle."  
"Uh…yeah?" Said the right Indian.  
The left Indian stayed silent.  
"One of you lies while the other tells the truth."  
The two Indians looked at each other. The left one smiled, "Oooooh…"  
The right one smiled back, "Much smarter then our usual prey."  
Prey, that was what Jareth was to this place. Jareth stood, "Ok. So, this usually works with one question."  
He went up to the two, stepping to the right one. He looked at the left man and back to the right man, then kicked him in the balls.  
The right man screamed, grabbing his manhood, and falling to the side. The man on the left cried out. Jareth stood calmly, looking at him, "Did I just kick him in the balls?"  
"NO!"  
"Alright. You lie."  
From there it was pretty easy to get answers from them. Jareth didn't like to be so harsh, but what choice did he have? He didn't have time to screw around. He was sure some sort of lesson was supposed to be learned from doing this right, but he was willing to glance over it. He picked what he thought was the right door. He walked through it thinking, "Piece of cake."  
And as he fell through the trap door into the darkness, he thought, "So much for cheating in this place."

A/N: HELLO! How do you like the new version of RP so far? Comment! I like to hear the reader's feedback! I'm also trying a new way to upload the story. Does it work for you?


	4. Chapter 4

Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 4

**Jareth made pantomime like he was bashing his head into the counter, his cell phone at his ear. His sister, heavily pregnant, stood on the other side of the counter pouring tea. **

"**Yes, Cecil, I hear you. Yes. I'll try and make the changes by Wednesday. Alright. Goodbye."**

**Irene passed him a cup of tea as he shrugged down into his chair, a weight visibly being lifted from him as the cell phone disappeared into his pocket.**

"**How's the wife?" Irene asked before she took a sip of tea. **

"**Oh, Ha-ha." He said, throwing a wadded up napkin at her, "Don't even joke about that. She's worse then Mum was. I swear. Now she wants me to write the next Twilight book. I can't fathom what brought that up."**

**Irene sighed, "You don't read any kind of entertainment magazine do you?"**

**Jareth looked confused, "I don't actually. It just reminds me about how long its been since I've seen anything about my material in print." He glanced over at his stack of half finished manuscripts for new stories. He had written almost thirteen now. Never finished one. None of them seemed right.**

"**All she needs is a cape, we can call her Dracula." Irene finished. She had been talking and Jareth missed what she was saying. He looked at her blankly, "Pardon?"**

**She leaned over and smacked the back of his head. He flinched, swatted playfully at her, even if her own smack hurt.**

"**I was saying that Twilight is bloody huge! The third book just came out and its already breaking records. I think I heard they're making a movie of it or something."**

**Jareth leaned back. He had picked up Twilight, reading through it quickly. He liked to keep abreast of young adult fiction, since that was what he wrote… tried to write anyway. He didn't care for it too much. He could see how girls would fall for the perfect species that was Edward Cullen, but he knew real boys weren't like that. Some, anyway.**

"**So what did she want you to do?" Irene asked again. **

**Jareth looked at her, a little annoyed. "She wants me to pump out a book to ride the coat tails of Twilight's success."**

"**Will you? I hope you won't because that would be a bad move on your part. You're a good writer, Jareth. You don't need to ride anyone's coat tails. They should be riding yours."**

**Jareth paused, looking at his sister. He never really heard her talk like that. "I wasn't… No… no, I won't. Don't worry." He looked a little defeat as she nodded, as if something had been accomplished. She gathered up her things, "I'm off then. Doctor's appointment." She kissed his cheek and left.**

**He took his cup of tea and walked to his typewriter and stack of manuscripts. He sat in his chair and stared at the typewriter for a moment, sighed and rolled a fresh sheet of paper through the rollers. **

"**Vampires…" he muttered, "Teenage vampires…"

* * *

  
**

What had made him think of that, he wondered as he fell through the darkness. It was only a split second of thought but it seemed like forever as he tumbled through the air. Oh yah, his dignity. Did he actually have any left or had his sister and his agent taken it all? He got his answer when he hit the ground. Apparently he had none left. He landed in something warm and wet and he hoped to God it wasn't piss. The something shifted and he fell a shorter distance into a stony floor. The sound of a door shutting loudly echoed around him.

He rolled on his back, trying to breath. His wind had been knocked from his body with the fall. He wheezed in silence as he looked up at the ceiling. A small square of light from the trap door above him was the only light in what appeared to be a cell.

He stood, bracing himself on the stony wall. He was on his knees again when he realized how low the ceiling really was. His head rang soundly. He had to pause, waiting for the throbbing to subside. He felt from the wall to the ceiling. It was so low, he had to hunch over. He didn't know how long it took, but he felt his way around the small cell. He sat down against the wall.

Panic rose into his chest. He didn't find anything that could be a door. Toby was going to be a goblin, he was going to rot in this cell, and his sister would forever wonder what happened to her son and her brother. His eyes burned with tears and he pulled his knees to his chest. And what was that smell! What had he landed in! He was trapped and he stank.

"Oooh, Hahahaha."

Jareth jerked and hit his head again against the ceiling as he tried to stand out of reflex. He moaned and fell to the floor, holding his head, making the mysterious voice laugh again, this time, harder.

"Who's there?" Jareth said, weakly.

There was a sound, a hissing, and light flickered in the darkness as the dwarf lit a glittery candle. Jareth blinked against the light. When he saw who it was, he moaned louder.

"Kill me now, if that's what you're here for."

"As much as I would love to…" He walked around the little table, have no trouble with the low ceiling. Jareth looked at the table, a little confused. When he was feeling around, he swore that wasn't there.

"I am here, to help you."

"Help me? You tried to kill me earlier!"

"That was before I knew you." The dwarf said, looking sorry. Jareth narrowed his eyes at him.

"Right. You got to know me between that time and now."

The dwarf wiped the false sincerity off his face, "Alright, alright. Would you believe I'm bored? Nothing exciting ever happens here and-"

"Stop lying. You're horrible at it. Right now, I don't care why you want to help me, just help me." Jareth's hand went to his watch. He had to give payment to this little man or he wouldn't help Jareth, not truly. If he got some sort of payment, he would feel the need to help Jareth more then he would without payment.

"I'll give you this." Jareth help up his watch. It was just a cheap thing he got from the day market, but he figured this little man would want it. He had seen a clutch of baubles looped around the dwarf's belt earlier. Given how this place worked, this man would carry everything he owned on him.

This little man would be a key player in this story, Jareth thought. If he wasn't before, he was now, because Jareth would make him one. It was coincidence he just appeared in Jareth's path again. It was no doubt he would be a saboteur on Jareth's quest for his nephew. Remembering how he went on when Jareth first met him, he was a servant to the Goblin Queen, possibly even a slave. Jareth stared at the little man as he thought. The dwarf fidgeted nervously, not liking the way this man stared at him.

"Well?"

Jareth was jerked out of his thought and handed the man his watch, "Take me through the labyrinth?"

"Sure sure… I'll take you as far as I can…" he was too preoccupied looking at the watch to say much else.

Jareth stood, stooping, "Alright, how do we get out of here?"

The dwarf put the watch around his wrist, admired it and then laughed, "Right now, we are in an oubliette. Dark, scary-"

"Stop with the theatrics. I'm on a time limit." Jareth interrupted. The dwarf looked sourly at him then went to what Jareth though was a pile of rocks. The dwarf moved back a pile of gray blankets and pushed up a plank of wood. He pushed it against the wall, grumbling loudly as he rooted around in his pockets and pulled out a door pull. He stuck it onto the plank and pulled it open. Jareth waddled over to watch and smiled to see a hallway. The dwarf walked out through the door after pulling the door pull off the plank. Jareth crawled through and stood in the hallway, slightly blinded. He stretched, wincing as his back cracked.

His hand brushed the wall and he jerked it back. Where his hand touched the wall, was bloody.

"Hey, horrible." He called out to the dwarf.

The dwarf turned and saw Jareth cradling his hands. "My name ain't Horrible, it's Hoggle."

"Well, Hoggle, what the hell, man." He held his hand out. Hoggle hobble forward, looking at the scrapes and then looked around the hall, "We're in the Hallways of Glass."

Jareth looked around too, now that his eyes adjusted to the light in the hallway. The hall was narrow, he would have to keep his arms very close. The walls were covered like a mosaic in broken mirror and glass pieces. It was beautiful, yes, with light coming from some unknown source, lighting the glass and throwing rainbows on the floor. With beauty came danger, though. Jareth had to be very careful. Again, it seemed Hoggle was in no danger of being hurt. Jareth took his handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his hand. He hoped this wound wouldn't fester before he had a chance to clean it.

Hoggle led him through the Hallways of Glass quickly. Jareth stumbled a few times, brushing the wall. He cut his left arm, ripping his shirt. They came out of the halls into a dirty sewer. It was thankfully dry, but it still smelled. Jareth sighed with relief, first hunkered down in a small cell, then in danger of being cut to ribbons. Hoggle looked up and down, "Ok, thi…s…way. Uh oh…" Jareth saw he was looking at the ground and Jareth followed his stare to the small glass orb rolling down the way.

The orb jumped up into the cup of a beggar. Hoggle stared at the beggar and Jareth could feel the little goblin shutter. This wasn't a beggar.

"Well… what do we gots here?"

"Nothin'! Nothin'! We have nothing', We'll just be on our way now.."

"Nothing? Nothing? Nothing Tra la la la?" Sarah stood, throwing off her disguise. Hoggle leapt back, "Highness!"

"Of course…" Jareth breathed. He crossed his arms as Sarah stared at him, taking in his dirty pants and blood shirt. Jareth sized her up too. She was taller now,, her spiked boots giving her a few inches. She wore tight grey pants, a white poet's shirt, and a red leather jacket with a high collar and long train. Her hair was piled like a wild birds nest, her braided headband laced with ribbon the same color of her coat. She smiled at him knowingly when she caught his stare.

He turned away. She kneeled in front of Hoggle as he trembled. "So Hoggle, what were you planning to do, hmmm?" She put a gloved hand under his chin so he would look at her.

"I was… I was…"

"You were taking him to my castle."

"NO! No!"

"YES!" She slapped him, hard, across the face. Jareth stepped up, "HEY!"

She stood to meet him, "Yes?"

"There is no reason to treat him like that!"

"Isn't there? There are plenty of reason, Jareth," Her voice edged in poison, "Hoggle, tell the nice man who stands up for your rights, what you were going to do."

"B…but High…"

"TELL HIM!"

"I was going to…to lead you back to the beginning."

Jareth stared down at Hoggle and then looked at Sarah, "I know."

Hoggle looked surprised, but Sarah kept her smug smile. Jareth looked down at Hoggle, "I knew you would betray me, Hoggle. There was nothing to adhere you to me, except a watch. A crummy watch that doesn't even work after my fall into the oubliette. I was going to ditch you as soon as we got topside, probably even hobble you so you couldn't try and stop me from my goal."

Hoggle stared at him as Sarah smiled lovingly at Hoggle, "Didn't I warn you about humans?" She turned back to Jareth, "How do you like my labyrinth?"

Jareth turned back to her. Would be tempting fate by poking the snake?

"It's a piece of cake."

The answer was yes.

"A piece of cake?" She said, acting surprised. She tilted her head and raised her arm, pointing towards the hanging clock. A light from nowhere was thrown onto it. She rotated her wrist and as she did, the hour hand moved on the clock to subtract two hours to Jareth's time.

"You bitch!" He seethed. Hoggle twitched.

"Didn't see that one coming, did you?" Sarah smirked as she turned, "Oh."

Jareth widened his eyes. Something bad was going to happen. Sarah turned, one of her crystals in her hand, "I almost forgot." She threw the orb down the hallway and vanished. The orb rolled down the dark hallway and the air filled with the sound of grating metal. Light appeared above a machine that filled the whole area, so much so, it scrapped the top of the tunnel and created sparks. Hoggle cried out and ran past Jareth on his short legs, "RUN!"

"What is it!" Jareth cried, really not caring what it was. He just knew it would kill him and he needed to run, run fast.

"It's the CLEANERS!"


	5. Chapter 5

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 5

**Jareth panted as he pulled himself up. His friend, or who he thought was his friend, was swaying just as badly. Why all this fighting between two mates because of a girl? Because she was a pretty girl. A girl Jareth had saw first. He had been sitting with her at lunch for weeks, Robert knew that. Jareth had been gone for only a few days because he was sick and all the sudden, Robert and Lily were an item? Not in Jareth's book. He wasn't going to let her be stolen from him. **

**Lily stood off to the side, hopping from foot to foot, fear in her lovely green eyes. Jareth ran a hand across his mouth and looked at it. Blood stained the skin from his thumbnail to his wrist. The two boys started throwing punches again. They weren't skilled fighters, but the punches hurt just the same. Lily cried out when Robert fell to the ground and finally ran to get help. **

**Robert jumped up and rushed Jareth, pushing him to the ground as a teacher and Lily rounded a corner. Robert sat on Jareth's chest, pulled his fist back, and as he meant to hit him in the nose, missed, and Jareth in the eye.**

"**MY EYE!" Jareth screamed. He kicked Robert off, rolling to his side. The paid was a thousand starbursts in his brain. He wanted to pass out. When did Robert start wearing a ring? The teacher rushed to Jareth's side and soon after Jareth was rushed to the hospital. **

**All this trouble over some girl…

* * *

  
**

Jareth would give anything to return to that moment of his life. Anything to just get away from the grinding metal and the sparks that seemed to be jumping around him as he and the dwarf ran through the tunnels below the labyrinth. He swore, between Hoggle's cussing, and his own panting, he heard someone laughing.

Up ahead, a light appeared on a gate covering the tunnel. Jareth's heart leapt into his chest as they hit the block and Jareth rattled it as hard as he could.

"Ooooh…. GOD!" The gate was chained and padlocked and the sound of the Cleaners grew louder. There was a boarded up door by the gate and Jareth started pulling at it.

"HELP ME!"

Hoggle started pulling off boards with the strength any normal human (let alone a dwarf) would or should have. The sound of the boards hitting the stone floor was drowned out by grating metal teeth and grinding gears. The last board came off but the door wouldn't open until Jareth stood back and with one well placed motion, kicked it in. He ignored the pain from this action as he pushed Hoggle into the tiny space and followed him in. He felt something brush the back of his shirt as he landed on top of Hoggle.

The crash of the Cleaners destroying the gate and then dragging it along the tunnel as they moved on echoed through Jareth's head. Hoggle thrashed under him and Jareth rolled off, panting. He looked up the long tube with a ladder nailed to one side of the tube. A small dot of light, like a halo, smiled down at Jareth.

"Oh, thank God." Jareth said quietly. The sound of the Cleaners was only a distant echo now and one that Jareth would soon rather forget. Hoggle was already halfway up the ladder. He turned and looked down at Jareth, "You comin'?"

Jareth blinked and followed the dwarf up the ladder. It was a few minutes and by the time they came to the top, Jareth's arms felt like Jell-O. He fell out of the top of a moss covered well and rolled onto the ground. He lay on his back, enjoying the way the sunlight filtered through the green leaves onto him. Cool air brushed over him softly and the smell of damp earth filled his nostrils. He heard Hoggle shuffling around him and he propped himself up on his elbow, looking at the small man.

Hoggle looked at him and then started off down the little hill that the well sat on. He lost his balance on his short legs and rolled down the hill, coming to a rough stop at the bottom. Jareth stood up, walking down the few feet to Hoggle.

"You ok, mate?"

Hoggle stood and eyed Jareth, "Where do we go now that we both know we would cheat the other. How can we trust each other?"

"We can't," Jareth sighed, "because you would lead me away from my goal with your tricks. I would sooner throw you in a lake then follow you."

"I could really show you the way to the castle."

"Why would you do that?"

"I hate the way she treats me. It isn't right. A queen should be good and kind." His voiced filled with sadness and longing.

"What choice do I have? You know this place better then I do." Jareth said, pausing slightly as Hoggle viably relaxed his shoulders before he struck. He pinned Hoggle to the ground and ripped the rope from his pants. He held up the tangle of shiny bits and strings of jewels then stood up. Hoggle jumped to his feet. Jareth stared at the little man as he tied the tangle of sparklies to his own belt then looked around.

"Give those back! Thems mine!"

"Call it an insurance policy, Hoggle." They were in a thick forest, the trees tall and old. Moss covered just about everything and so did a liberal spray of glitter. The sun filtered through the leaves and the air seemed…smoky.

Hoggle hopped up and down, "That isn't fair! Give them back! I said I would show you the way!"

"That's right, it isn't fair, is it? That's what this whole bloody place is. Unfair! It was unfair of me to wish my cousin away. It wasn't fair that you tried to kill me. It was unfair of the maze to keep changing. Like I said, this is an insurance policy. You don't keep your word, I'll dump them in the first body of water I find."

Hoggle's mouth moved up and down in horror then he closed it. He narrowed his eyes at Jareth, made a rude gesture, then stalked past Jareth. A movement Jareth found funny, how did a man with such short legs stalk past anything without falling?

"We're in the Forgotten Forest. Come on."

Jareth started after Hoggle. The path disappeared a little ways from the well. The only path seemed to be one for small animals. They walked for what seemed like forever. The forest never seemed to change and neither did the light. Jareth caught himself looking at the empty spot on his wrist where his watch used to be. The trees were crowded together, roots grew up out of the ground and were hidden by moss. The roots and rocks kept tripped Jareth up, even thought Hoggle looked like he was walking unhindered. Jareth, being the taller of the two, had to stoop and bend to get through several tight areas and after being thwacked in the face by a thick branch, he leaned on a tree, waving a hand, "I need to rest."

"You have less time then ever now, and you want to rest." Hoggle looked disgusted as he watched Jareth sit down. He grumbled and paced back and forth as Jareth leaned over his knees, wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his sleeve.

"How did you know?" He asked finally.

"Know what?" Jareth asked, once he caught his breath.

"That I would lead you back to be beginning?"

Jareth looked the little man up and down, "I didn't, not really. I just said that because I didn't want Sarah to think I was an idiot. I know women like that, where I come from. They think they know everything and it drives me mad."

Hoggle was quiet. Jareth knew Hoggle was thinking over what he had said. Jareth rubbed his feet, letting the dwarf have time to mull over Jareth's lie. Jareth wasn't an idiot. He knew why Hoggle was with him. He could be telling the truth about showing him the correct way to the castle. But then again… he wasn't. He would do everything in his power to slow Jareth down. It was the nature of the story. The hero versus the villain. The villain had to have henchmen. In good stories there had to be a traitor. Hoggle would make out to be Jareth's friend and then be a traitor. Jareth nodded to himself. Hoggle was the servant, the spy, and the traitor. As long as Jareth kept that in mind, he should be fine, and maybe in the long run, he could manipulate Hoggle into something Jareth needed done.

Jareth stood after a moment and walked past Hoggle, "Ok."

Hoggle followed, a few steps behind. Jareth knew the dwarf was being reluctant. 'Let him be whatever her wants,' Jareth thought, 'As long as the little git is in my sight, I know he can't stab me in the back.'

Jareth looked around where they had stopped, "It all looks the same! Do you know where we are?" He asked, turning back to Hoggle.

Suddenly, the forest echoed with a thunderous roar. Hoggle jumped, "OH GOD!"

"What?" Jareth whipped around, peering through the dense foliage, "What is it?"

"I'm out of here!"

"Wait! You can't just leave me!"

"Watch me!"

"Your gems?" Jareth said, angrily, shaking the little string on his belt. Obviously, he grossly underestimated Hoggle's cowardice.

"Screw them, I can find more!" And with that, Hoggle was gone through a clump of bushes as the roar came again. Jareth turned, startled.

The roar was really close. He pushed through another cluster of bushes. The roars were like echoes of grinding rock and avalanches. They came evenly spaces, like a singer and it helped Jareth to follow the sound. He heard laughter as the another roar came, even louder then the others. Jareth kneeled by a tree and peered slowly around it. A large, yeti-like beast hung from a large tree by his ankle. Around him danced five creatures that seemed to be made of fire.

The creatures moved with a wild fluidity around a fire pit. One of them was placing wood into the pit under the beast. Jareth looked up at the beast. It was very large, with wild black horns and thick fur that was the same color as the reddish dirt around them. One of the creatures whacked the beast across the back with the spidery hand. The beast turned on its rope so Jareth could see it's eyes. They were large and liquid amber. The fear fill eyes of an animal caught in the headlights. Jareth looked into the eyes of the beast and he felt shame for just watching this creature hang while the others were obviously going to hurt it.

"I'm going to regret this. I know I am." Jareth muttered as he looked around for something to help him against these creatures. There was nothing but little twigs thrusting up from the moss and… hey. Jareth picked up a good sized rock he swore hadn't been there before. He eased around the tree and threw the rock as hard as he could. The rock bounced off the head of one of the creatures and to Jareth's horror, it fell off!

The head bounced away from the group as the others laughed wildly.

"He lost his head!"

"Jive-Turkey done lost it!"

"This beastie is suppose to lose HIS head, brotha!"

Jareth found another rock and threw. The rock collided with another creature and it exploded. Arms and legs flew off in different directions and the creatures turned towards where the rock came from.

"HEY! He's throwin' rocks!"

"Didn't yo' motha ever tell you not to throw things?"

"Help me find my leg!"

Jareth found a good sized branch and came around the tree, holding the limb like a bat, "You get away from him…her… it!"

"Whatchu talkin' about, pinky?"

"Yah! He's ours! We caught him! Catch yur own!"

Jareth advanced and swung at the nearest creature. It's head went flying into the forest. He swung again and the torso of another creature went flying.

"Yur cheating!" They cried.

"You only remove yur OWN head, brotha!"

Jareth hit another home run and another head went flying. That was all of them. They frantically searched for their heads as Jareth went to the rope the beast was tied with. He pulled at it and the came loose, dropping the beast to the ground with a ground shaking thud. It stood up slowly and everything seemed to stop. The beast turned slowly towards the creatures and opened it's mouth. A deafening roar split the air and Jareth dropped his stick to cover his ears. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach to the depth of his balls. He squatted down, gritting his teeth, his nails digging into the sides of his head. The creatures, with or without their heads, made a hasty retreat.

Jareth looked up to the tapping on his shoulder. The beast was looking down at him with it's liquid amber eyes, eyes that were friendly and intelligent. Jareth blinked up at the beast and smiled. This beast wasn't a danger, Jareth decided. He stood up, coming only to about the shoulder of it. It had the lumbering body of a gorilla and floppy, rubbery feet. Jareth put a hand out in friendly greet, "I'm Jareth."

The beast looked at Jareth's hand and took it, it's own hand three times the side of Jareth's. Jareth was pulled into a hug that made his spine groan. The beast put Jareth down after a moment and grinned, showing the flat teeth of a herbivore, "Ludddooo."

"Ludo? Well, mate, nice to meet you. I'm trying to find the castle at the center of the labyrinth. Do you know where it is?"

Ludo looked hopeful for a moment, then another moment, then shook his head, "Nooo…"

"Damn." Jareth sighed, then turned, "Well… damn."

"Friend?" Ludo said.

Jareth turned back to Ludo and saw Ludo looking down a path that wasn't there before. Of course the forest changes too. Jareth sighed and decided this would be his best bet since Hoggle ran off and this being the only path he had found since entering the forest. He started towards it and saw Ludo was following him. He stopped and Ludo stopped. He walked a little further and Ludo followed. 'He's like a lost puppy,' Jareth thought. It wouldn't do him harm to have Ludo along. Having a big beast would scare away unwanted distractions. Jareth nodded.

"Come on, Ludo. I have to save my cousin from the Goblin Queen."

"Ludo and Jareth… friends."

"That's right, Ludo. Come on."

* * *

AN: I am SO sorry this took so long! Holidays and sick and just life. GAH! Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter. I did write Ludo as a girl in the original but I wrote myself into a corner and decided to just have Ludo be his own self. **Happy New Year!!**


	6. Chapter 6

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 6

**The snow fell around them, burying the tracks that had made with the car. She wasn't looking at him, but out the side window to the gray stone cottage that glowed merrily with Christmas lights. Jareth felt around his pockets and found what he needed as she turned to him. He smiled big, beginning to pull out the small velvet box.**

"**Jareth, I'm breaking up with you."**

**The velvet box suddenly felt so heavy he dropped it into the inside pocket of his jacket as he stared at his lady love. She looked at him and he could see the hurt and fear in her eyes just before she looked down at her hands. He looked at them too and noticed she wasn't wearing gloves. Her hands were thin and long, piano players hands. They were white, whiter still at the knuckle because she had them clinched. Her hair fell forward in a curtain to hide her features.**

**Her lovely curling brown hair. It was always unruly and he called her 'my little Hermione." She loved books, they had met at his publisher's office, as a matter of fact. She was a copy right editor. He looked out the front of the car, "I don't understand."**

**She was quiet for a moment, "I love you, Jareth…"**

"**I love you too, Alice."**

"… **but I'm not IN love with you. I can't picture us having children or growing old together. And I think I distract you from your work…"**

"**My work? What-"**

"**Jeff said that-"**

"**Jeff? My agent-"**

"**I'm sorry-"**

"**But…" **

**But there was nothing. She turned to him, tears shining in her eyes, "I'm sorry."**

**Jareth turned away, looking out his own side window. He couldn't look at her while his heart slowly ripped in two. When he turned back, he was smiling, "Don't worry about it."**

**She looked surprised. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked, her unshed tears slipping down her rosy cheeks. He took one of her hands and kissed the knuckles, "I love you, but if you don't love me…"**

**She hugged him. When she sat upright, her hand went to the door handle, then she paused. She remembered where they were and why they were there. She looked panicked for a moment. He leaned over her and she stiffened. He opened the door for her. He sat up straight as she looked from the open door to him.**

"**It will be ok." He said softly. The cold air was a slap in the face after sitting in the warm car for so long. **

**She nodded and got out. He looked straight ahead as she opened the back door to remove her suitcase. He only turned to watch her walk up the steps and knock on the door. He watched as her mother opened the door and greeted her with only the love a mother could give. His heart gave a little wretch. He turned the car on and started to pull away as the door to the cottage closed. **

**The velvet box weighed so heavily in his pocket, it was a beacon of sorrow. He stopped at a bridge outside of the village. He got out of his car, ignoring the cold and the foot of snow he stepped into. He looked down over the side of the bridge. The water still flowed sluggishly. He removed the velvet box and opened it. The gold ring with the sapphire glinted. Alice didn't like diamonds. She said they were too cold. **

**He took the ring out and held his hand over the side of the bridge. He would drop it in the river and be done with it. Then he would go home and take all the pictures of Alice and burn them. **

**No… He pulled his hand back. No. he put the ring back in the box and put it back in his pocket. No, he wouldn't do these things. He would take the ring back to the jewelers. The pictures would go into a box into his closet. He loved Alice, they had a good two years together. He would act rationally about this. She may come to her senses. **

**He got back into his car and started it once more. He wouldn't tell anyone just yet. It was the holidays after all. He didn't want to spoil them for anyone else.

* * *

  
**

"Hoggle…"

The eerie softness of her voice haunted him wherever he went. Her emerald eyes would watch him in his sleep. The softness of her skin, the way her gloves fitted over her smooth fingers, her lips were like two rose pedals. He loved her with every fiber of his being and yet…

"Hoggle…"

As Hoggle walked through the craggy and weed filled canyon, he had to think on what the man had said. The hateful man looking for the brat. He stopped at an outcropping of stones to rest. He had ran all the way after he left The Man. The beasts of the forest were dangerous and he was sure that one of them would get him. His job was done, wasn't it?

"Hooogglllle…"

He turned suddenly, hearing it again. It wasn't just in his head, he was sure of it. He walked a few paces more, moving around a large boulder and there she was, resting against a tree. His breath stopped in his throat as he admired her. The shape of her legs in her tights, the way the high collar of her traveling jacket framed her face. His eyes went to the orb rolling in her hands. Across the knuckles, over her fingers to the tips. She looked at him and smiled. She smiled just for him and he stepped forward without meaning to.

"Lady Sarah…"

"Oh Hoggle… you are such a bad boy…"

Her voice was soft and there was an edge of smoldering lust to it. The orb disappeared and she kneeled. She was so close to him, how did she get so close? Her hands slipped around his shoulders and through his scraggly gray hair, his cap falling forward to the ground. She pulled him into her bosom and ran a finger over the top of his earlobe. He felt a stirring in his pants as she did so and he closed his eyes, trembling.

"Oh Hoggle… I asked you to stay with him. To watch him. And if he got close to his goal… do whatever it took to stop him."

"I…I…" He stuttered as her lips moved next to his cheek as she spoke. Her hot breath smelled like peppermints.

"Oh Hoggle…" She whispered and then there was pain. He was on the ground in agony.

"I notice your fine jewels are gone…" She stood as he writhed on the ground in pain. A line of blood trickled down from his ear where she had cut him with the little metal cap she wore on her thumb. A long, curved needle protruded from it. She placed her left foot on his second set of jewels.

She pressed down and he whimpered, the pointed toe of her boot digging into his skin. Her smile was still sweet as she looked down at him.

"I told you to watch him." Her voice was calm and smoky, as usual.

"I was!" He said in a shrill voice as she pushed on his privates.

"And I find you here?"

"I…I came to find you to…to…report!"

"Oh Hoggle…" She lifted her shoe, walking away from him. He curled up and around like a shrimp.

"You are lying to me Hoggle. I dislike being lied to. No matter. It's for the better. Like I said, I see your fine jewels are missing. He took them, didn't he? Humans are all the same. They think they rule the universe but they have no idea. You remember what I have said time and again, Hoggle. Humans can not be trusted. Especially him."

Hoggle was close to tears as he slowly sat up, looking at her. She was rolling the orb back and forth again. Her eyes were on him as she threw it into the air and caught it, then continued to roll it around.

"Return to him, Hoggle. And take him this."

She tossed the orb into the air again and he caught it, fumbling as he did. It wasn't the glass orb, it was a peach. He looked confused, looking back up at her, "I don't understand, what is it?"

"It's a present." A smirk tugged at her lips.

Hoggle looked down at it, "Will it… hurt him?"

Anger flashed through her eyes and he flinched, waiting for the pain that didn't come.

"Worried for him?" She sneered, "You think he's your friend? Your mate? You just remember, Hoggle, he is a cheat and a lair. All humans are, and he is doubly so. The only one you can trust is me."

Hoggle looked down at the peach and nodded slowly. He stuck it into a hidden pocket, careful not to smash it. He turned and started back to where he had left The Man.

"Oh, and Hoggle…"

He turned as she called. She stood tall and smiled, her arms crossed over her chest.

"If you try and help him…" She narrowed her eyes and he doubled over. Fire swept through his chest and through his limbs. He screamed in horror and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had come. He panted, looking around in fear. She was gone, of course, but her laughter echoed through the canyon.

* * *

The forest was thinning out but a fog had risen, making it almost impossible to see. Soon, Jareth noticed, there was no forest, just unbelievably thick fog. It was colder, too, he noticed. He shivered as he and Ludo made their way through the thick clouds of fog. Ludo had no problem with the cold, he had a thick hide and a blanket of hair covering him, Jareth thought, a little bitterly.

Ludo lumbered ahead of him, stopping every now and then to look back at him to make sure Jareth was still there. Jareth thought it was a little strange. He wasn't going to ditch Ludo, he seemed to know what he was doing, even if he didn't know where he was going. It was one of these times that Ludo stopped and looked back at Jareth, that Jareth thought something was going on. He walked past Ludo when he didn't start lumbering on again.

"Come on, Ludo. I only have so long befor-"

A strong gust of wind blew past him. It was cold, driving needles of frozen air into his skin and he shivered, stopping. The wind blew the fog away from the path and Jareth gasped, stepping back. The path had revealed itself to be gone, dropping thousands of feet. The wind had cleared the fog to reveal them to be next to a long wire bridge. The new maze was a canyon with high sides and had opened up to a wide plateau. The bridge was long, but Jareth could see the end lead down into another forest.

"HALT!" A shrill voice called from a small building by the bridge. A small foxy goblin rushed from the building, brandishing a staff. Jareth had stepped back from the edge of the drop, his heart hammering in his chest. He had almost ended this unwanted adventure! No wonder Ludo had taken the lead, to keep Jareth from falling!

"You sir! State your business!" The little fox goblin was on Jareth now and poking him with his little staff.

"I'm going to the Goblin City." Jareth said after a moment. Ludo lumbered up tot them to join their conversation. He looked down at the fox goblin, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"You certainly are on the right track, BUT NONE SHALL PASS!" The little fox shouted, "I, Sir Didymus, have taken an oath and have SWORN never to let a living soul pass over this bridge without my permission!"

Jareth blinked at the little fox. "What, are you going to make me answer three questions to pass? I don't have time for this. Let me by!"

He started forward, but got whacked in the shins for his troubles. Jareth hopped up and down in pain as Sir Didymus brandished his staff around, "I SAID NONE SHALL PASS! I have no use for answers so what good are questions. Go back to… tall people land!"

"Why you little…" Jareth said, but Ludo was already there, picking up Didymus by his staff, "Friend want over bridge!" He roared in Didymus's face.

Didymus seemed unimpressed and he smacked Ludo on the nose with his foot. Ludo dropped him and gripped his nose, whimpering in pain.

"I shall fight you!" Didymus shouted, hopping up and down, "I shall fight for the right! Defend my honor! I shall not move from my post under fear of death! HAVE AT THEE!!"

He growled and woofed several times as Jareth looked at Ludo's nose, telling him everything was ok. Ludo rubbed his nose and looked at the hopping fox. A deep growl came from Ludo's throat and he lumbered past Jareth to Didymus. He swatted at the fox, but he was too fast for him. Didymus swerved around Ludo and poked him in the butt, then taunted him. He danced in front of Ludo as Ludo took another slow swing. Didymus dodged and raced around Ludo until Ludo was so dizzy, Jareth was afraid he would fall down.

Ludo finally had enough of the small fox. With a swift movement Jareth was surprised such a beast had, Ludo plucked Didymus's staff from his hand and snapped it in two. Didymus came to a halt and stared at his broken staff and then at Ludo.

"Never have I been defeated in combat!" Didymus wasn't angry, he was in awe of Ludo. "From this day on, we shall be brothers! Fighting back to back for The Right!" He slapped Ludo on the leg and grinned wolfishly. Or as wolfishly as a fox can.

"Brotheeerrr?" Ludo said, a little confused.

"Great!" Jareth said, "We can cross the bridge then."

Jareth started towards the bridge and Didymus slid in front of him, "Hold on a moment!"

Ludo lumbered up beside Jareth. Didymus narrowed his eye (for he had only one, a small black eye patch was over the other, making Jareth think the fox was more of a pirate then a knight) at Jareth and brandished a finger, "I have made an oath! No one shall cross this bridge!"

"Uuuugh!" Jareth said, more then a little put out, "I have to get to the Goblin City! I don't have TIME for this! Can we please cross?" Jareth tried the magic words. It worked when I was a kid, he reasoned in his head.

"I have sworn an oath," Didymus repeated, "To not allow a living soul pass this bridge without my permission!"

Jareth blinked at the fox. Could it really be this easy? "Can we have your permission to corss this bridge?"

Didymus blinked in confusion then looked sheepish, "Uh… yes?"

"Too right!" Jareth crossed first and Ludo followed. It took only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours. The wind whipped at them on the high bridge and it was very cold. Jareth was shivering by the time they made it over and he stamped his feet, rubbed his arms, and wished he had his jacket. He turned to Ludo and saw that Didymus had followed them on what looked like an English Sheep dog. It had a saddle and stirrups and even a flag declaring Didymus's shield.

"I am honor bound to show you to the city." Didymus said as he steered his steed to Jareth, "A friend of my brother is a friend of mine. We luckily do not have far to go. The outskirts of the city lie beyond this forest."

"Oh that is just the best news I have had today!" Jareth sighed, a weight lifting from his shoulders. He allowed Sir Didymus and his steed, Ambrosias, to lead.

The forest was the same as the one Jareth met Ludo in, but this one seemed to have more life in it. Fairies fluttered in the higher branches, birds sang, and he could hear frogs singing their froggy tunes. A twig snapped near them and Jareth turned towards the sound. The movement of something bigger then a lizard was walking through the brush. Didymus drew what looked like a sword, but it wasn't. It was more like a scepter. Jareth scowled when Hoggle peeked around a tree trunk.

"Came to see if the beast finished me off?"

"No!" Hoggle said, coming out from behind the tree, "I was just… worried…"

"Sure." Jareth said, crossing his arms at the little man.

"I was!" Hoggle said, more firmly, "I felt bad for leavin' yah! How was I to know you would come across this?" He pointed at Ludo.

"How do you know Ludo wouldn't have eaten me?"

Hoggle gave him a look that said, 'Don't be stupid.'

"How did you find us?" Jareth said. Had the Queen sent her errand boy back?

"I was following yah. I saw you entered the Cloud Maze and had crossed the bridge."

Jareth pursed his lips in thought, "Alright," he said finally.

"Alright, you see I'm fine. Didymus here is showing me the way to the city. You can go back doing whatever it is you do."

"HE'S showin' you to the city!" Hoggle started laughing in his barking way.

Didymus looked scandalized, "Are you suggesting something, sir!"

"Suggesting? No. I'm saying right out you'll lead him to the beginning of the maze!" Hoggle said.

"You, sir, are a cad and a lair! I demand satisfaction!" Didymus shouted, trying to remove one of his gloves to smack Hoggle with.

"I don't have TIME!" Jareth shouted, "FINE! Hoggle, you and Didymus lead! One of you should know the way. And if it's the wrong way, God help you…"

Hoggle sneered at Didymus as the small fox growled at Hoggle. The two started forward down the path in the forest. They walked in silence for a while until a loud gurgling sound made Ludo stop, "Ludo huuungry."

Until Ludo said this, Jareth had forgotten how hungry he was too.

"It has been long since the noon meal," Didymus said and his steed woofed in agreement.

"Maybe we can find some berries or something…" Jareth said.

They continued to walk, Hoggle hanging back to walk with Jareth. He removed the peach from his pocket, "Jareth?"

Jareth looked down as Hoggle offered the peach. Jareth's mouth watered as he looked at it. He almost took it. This had to be a trick. Hoggle couldn't be trusted, Jareth learned that already. Hoggle was the traitor and the spy.

"Hey, thanks mate." Jareth said, taking the peach, "Is there a tree around here?" he stopped to look around.

"Uh… no. I usually carry a little something. Go ahead. You can have it." Hoggle looked nervous, Jareth noted.

"Thanks, Hoggle." He started to rise the peach to his lips. Hoggle's eyes bugged out. Jareth was watching Hoggle as he did this and then lowered the peach quickly. Yes, there was something wrong with it. He turned, looking up the path, "Hey Ludo! Hoggle gave me-" He pretended to trip and the peach 'accidentally' flew out of his hand and into the forest.

"Oh bugger!" Jareth said in an unconvincing tone, looking at Hoggle with narrowed eyes, "Sorry, mate."

* * *

A/N: I got a little spurt of creativity with a new guilty pleasure. I've been thinking of writing a Snape/Hermione story for this website i've been wandering around. Just a thought. Anyway! Hope you enjoyed this chapter for the new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I love all my readers! 3 3 3


	7. Chapter 7

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 7

**Hoggle looked horrified as he stared into the woods where the peach had disappeared into the underbrush. Jareth looked down at Hoggle for a second with disgust then turned, going up the path to where Ludo and Didymus were. If Hoggle thought Jareth trusted him, he should have known now that Jareth was onto him. And Hoggle did know. He felt fear trickling through his veins and his heart seemed to have stopped. **

**He slowly walked backwards, turned and ran. He ran as fast as he could on his short legs. His lungs burned as he panted. He had to get away. Away from Sarah, from Jareth, away from the Labyrinth. He stopped, unable to run anymore. His lungs were on fire as he slumped against a tree. He half sobbed, going to his knees, his cap falling onto the ground beside him. **

Jareth returned to the others as Didymus turned on his doggy steed. They had stopped at a clearing on a hill. Jareth stood by Ludo over looking the city.

"Sir Jareth, may I present Goblin City."

There was no path down the hill. The path followed the top of the hill and seemed to dip down into thicker woods. Jareth's eyes followed the path down to a clearing with a high wall. He saw two doors with large brass knockers. This was the only way to the city. He looked back to the city and at the castle, straining his eyes. It was as if he wished it hard enough, he would be able to see Toby. But it wasn't possible.

"Lead on, Sir Didymus. The quickest path possible."

"Well met, Sir Jareth. Away Ambrosius, away!"

The fox led his dog steed down the steeps path and Jareth followed, almost wishing that he hadn't as he heard Ludo's feet slip on the loose earth. He heard Ludo's huge bulk hit the ground and as he turned, Ludo smashed into him. The two passed Didymus on the way down the hill and they crashed into a pile at the bottom.

"Sir Jareth, if you were in such a hurry…" Didymus started.

"Shut up." Jareth groaned under Ludo.

The yeti moved slowly and stood as Didymus circled them. Laughter filled the small clearing as the two doorknockers looked on. Both were ugly heads of goblins. One of them had the door knocker ring in it's mouth, the other had it's ring protruding from it's ears.

Jareth stood and arched his back with a groan. Several muscles protested and his spine popped nosily. After this whole mess, if he lived, he would take a nice long, HOT, soak in the tub. He turned to the doorknockers as he brushed dirt and leaves from his clothes.

"Best entertainment all year!" Said the knocker with the ring in it's ears.

"Imm mmmow! Mmmmuuu mmm mmrrr!" Said the one with the ring in it's mouth.

Jareth narrowed his eyes at them, "Which one of you leads to the city?"

"What?" Said the one with the ring in it's ears.

"Mhhe mmmooosssmm, mmmmeees mddeeef"

Now it was Jareth's turn to say, "What?" He took the large ring in his hands and removed it from the mouth of the long faced knocker.

"Oooh nuck nuck…" The door knocker moved his mouth up and down, "That feels so good. It's been in there for ages… I said 'Don't talk to him. He's deaf."

"Mumble mumble mumble! Speak up!' Said the deaf one.

"See?" Said the other.

"Which one of you leads to the city?" Jareth said again. Ludo stood beside him. He took the ring from Jareth and inspected it.

"How should we know? We're just the knockers. HO HEEE HO!!"

Jareth rolled his eyes as Didymus came up to them, pointing his scepter at the knocker, "OPEN UP!"

"Knock!" Said the knocker.

Jareth went to the deaf knocker and took the ring into his hand. He pulled back the knocker to the horror of the deaf knocker, "HEY! What are you doing? That hurts!"

But the last of his complaints where drowned out by the echoing thud of brass hitting brass. Jareth dropped the ring and the door slowly opened. He looked through the archway and down the path to what looked like a swamp. From his point on the ridge, he didn't see any swamp around here, but this was the Underground. Nothing was as it seemed.

It took him but a moment to realize the smell. It was so strong he staggered back, his hands going over his mouth and nose.

"Oh my GOD!" He groaned.

"SMELLL BAAAAD!" Ludo moaned.

"Smell? What smell? Didymus blinked.

"Ludo! Oh God, I'm going to vomit… Ludo close the door!"

Ludo lumbered to the door and pushed it closed. The smell slowly blew away with the breeze and Jareth glared at the two knockers, who were laughing wildly.

"Got a taste of the Bog of Eternal Stench did we?"

"OOOOH! Did they get a whiff of the Bog of Eternal Stench or what!!"

Jareth took the brass ring from Ludo, who still had it, and marched to the other door. He offered the ring back and the knocker refused it.

"Heck no!"

"Won't take his ring back, huh?" Said the deaf knocker, "I don't blame him."

"Come on, open up." Jareth said.

The knocker clamped his mouth shut as Jareth tried to force it in. He grit his teeth. He couldn't cheat at this… or could he? He noticed that air was coming out of the nose of the knocker. _It breathed. _Jareth grinned roguishly and clamped his hand over the nose of the knocker, pinching his nostrils shut.

The knocker made motions of breathlessness. His eyes rolled and finally, his mouth opened for a gasp of fresh breath. As it did, Jareth crammed the ring into his mouth.

"Mrrrr."

"Sorry."

"Sssok… I'mm muuursed to miiit."

Jareth took the ring and knocked three times. The door slowly opened. He waited a moment to make sure it wasn't another entrence to the Bog of Eternal Stench. When no fowl smell came to him, he turned to Ludo and Didymus, "Alright, it's ok. Come on mates."

He entered through the door first, followed by Didymus and then Ludo. The door behind them swung shut to the laughter of the knockers, which gave Jareth a bad feeling. He stopped and looked around. They were on a rocky path that cut through a marshy swamp with tall trees dipping into the murky water. He noticed the heat of everything too late to turn back now.

It was sweltering. It was as if they had just walked into an oven. Jareth gasped at it. He had felt this wet and sticky heat when he had been in Florida for a book signing when he was younger. This was a hundred time worst. Didymus walked past him, panting heavily.

"Come along, noble sirs. We have entered the Firelight Marsh. This heat will only get worse the longer we stand still. Best we move quickly before the Fire Fairies awaken."

Jareth didn't like the sound of that. Heat and fire, he would rather be in the Bog of Eternal Stench. They walked along the rocky path that wove it's way through the marsh. Jareth looked down at the marsh waters and stopped. He kneed down to watch the moving colors of it. It was like a rainbow lava lamp. Different rolling and shifting colors swam before his eyes and he smiled, feeling calm. He wanted to swim in it, touch it. He reached out and he felt a sharp poke in his side.

Didymus smacked him again as he turned to stare at the fox, "Sir Jareth!"

Jareth stood, feeling light headed. Didymus nodded to Ludo, who propped Jareth up.

"Sir Jareth, you must not gaze into the waters! This marsh is full of danger, even more so them the whole of the Labyrinth. The waters will pull you in and you will be lost!"

Jareth stared at Didymus, he felt cold and tired. A slight tremor worked it's way through his arms, as if he had done heavy lifting for hours. Didymus twisted on his saddle and opened a small flap, pulling out what looked like a dried daisy. He passed it to Ludo he gave it to Jareth.

"Jaaarettth, eeeeat."

"Eat it, Sir Jareth."

Jareth put it in his mouth. It was like eating a dried rose petal. He rolled it over his tongue, surprised it actually tasted sweet and swallowed. A warmth blossomed in his chest and he felt better. He nodded to Ludo and gave thanks to Didymus, who turned and they were off again.

The sun was getting low in the sky as they walked briskly along the rocky path. Didymus seemed to have picked up pace and Jareth was nervous to find out why. He guessed it had something to do with the Fire Fairies. The marsh seemed to grow darker around the edges and he could see small orbs of greenish light. He guessed they were fire flies. He had never actually seen them, but now was not the time. The waters of the marsh were slowly turning to ground and he was happy they were almost free of the sweltering marsh. Sweat rolled down his temples and soaked through the back of his shirt. His mouth was dry and as he ran his hand through his hair, he spotted the pool of water ahead. He gave a grateful sigh as he used his long legs to pass Didymus.

The path opened up into a woody clearing. On one side was the beginning of what looked like as a junk yard, but the trees grew too thick to see the actual thing. Jareth had his eyes on the water. He fell to his knees and bend down, dipping his waters into the cool liquid. He cupped his left hand, using his right to brace himself as he bent forward. The water was set into a deep hole in the ground that shored up on the other side of the pool. Jareth brought the water to his lips and drank, smiling as he did. The water was fresh and a little minty. Behind him, he heard gasps of shock.

He didn't turn, but stared at the yellow orb floating in the water. He leaned as far as he dared and grasped it. The water didn't even saturate the fuzz of the ripest peach he had ever seen. His eyes rolled up to the large peach tree that sat at the top of the shored up earth of the pool. Its dark emerald leaves caught the light, creating the shadow over the pool. Large ripe peaches hung with little white flowers around them. The roots of the tree dipped into the pool of water.

He looked down at the peach. Hoggle had given him a peach. He sat back on his heels as he looked over at Didymus and Ludo, who stared at him.

"What's the matter… what…" The peach rolled out of his hand and back into the water as his fingers tinged. He looked down at his hands, watching them shake.

"What's going on…" he said slowly. He felt light headed, colors began to fun together.

"I told you, dear boy! The waters! The waters will pull you in! The marsh stems from this pool! The Forgetting Well! My brother, quickly, grab him!"

Ludo moved to grab Jareth, but Jareth was already slipping sideways. He felt the cool hands of the waters wrapping around him as he broke the surface. He stared up at the darkening sky, seeing the light fluttering of bubbles above him.

"Everything's… dancing…"


	8. Chapter 8

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 8

_It was a dream. It had to be a dream. He Didn't remember anything before this point in his life and he was pretty vague on what was going on now. It was a party, a big one by the attendance, and the gaiety of the crowd was a frenzy of arms and bodies pressed together. Jareth found himself pausing as he came down the circular staircase. He stopped at the bottom, taking in the atmosphere. Why did he feel nervous, almost like he didn't belong? He looked like he did. He wore the same white jacket tuxedo all the other men seemed to be wearing. He didn't have a mask, why was everyone wearing masks? _

_"Welcome…ladies and gentleman."_

_Jareth looked to the band stand, the singer was male, the leader, he was also wearing a mask, as was the whole orchestra. Everything has a dreamlike quality to it. A slight haze covered the edges of the huge ballroom making it seem round. There was no color to it all, all the women wore black or white dresses, all the men wore white jacket tuxedos. The dance floor swirled with people doing the waltz, which was strange. These people dressed like they should be swing dancing or fox trotting… not waltzing. _

_He moved through the crowd, unsure of where he was going or what he was suppose to do. Wasn't there something? There had to be a reason he was here but… no. No, he couldn't remember. He stopped in the middle of the dance floor, the guests swirled around him as he stared at the most beautiful creature he had ever seen._

_Surrounded by other people, she sat in the middle. Her hair fell over one eyes, but the eye that was visible smoldered on him. Her ruby red lips parted in a smile. Her dress was as red as her lips, low cut, but long and slinky. She stood and stepped forward a little, tilting her head to the side. _

_"Our next number is lady's choice…" The voice echoed from the band stand. The crooner took up his microphone and started to sing a slow song as the waltzers slowed, but kept swirling. A couple passed in front of him and she was gone. _

_"There's such a saaad love, deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel, open and closed within your eyes, I'll place the sky within your eyes…"_

_As the crooner crooned his song, Jareth walked through the crowd, looking for her. He had to find her. His heart thudded in his chest, trying to break free. His limbs felt heavy. She had to be the one he had come for. He had to have her._

_"…There's such a fooled heart, beating so fast in search of new dreams, a love that will last within your heart, I'll place the moon within your heart…"_

_As he moved through the crowd, it became thicker, people moving in his way, laughing, talking, toasting. All the while, the bandstand played it's song and the leader sang. Jareth didn't know the song. He didn't know these people. The woman in red was the only one he knew…didn't he?_

_In all this black and white, he should be able to find her. The room grew more hazy with a kind of fog that covered the floors. Was that her? He thought he caught a glimpse of her. He was at the top of another staircase and he walked through the crush of the crowd. He was at the bottom and he had to pause, looking around. No… she was no where. He took a staggering breath and started back through the crowd. _

_"…As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you, every thrill has gone, wasn't too much fun at all, but I'll be there for you-oo-oo, as the world falls doooown…"_

_And then there she was, at the center of the dance floor. The crowd swirled around them as he looked at her. She smiled again and held her hand out. She wore long white gloves up to her elbows and he took her hand. He lead her into the waltz and it was only them. Him and her. He looked down at her, and she looked up, her hair moved slightly by the force of the dance, both eyes uncovered. They were clear and glittering green. The most beautiful eyes he had ever seen._

_"…I'll paint you mornings of gold, I'll spin you Valentine evenings, though we're strangers till now, we're choosing the path between the stars, I'll lay my love between the stars…"_

_It was true. He would lay his love down for her. He would do anything for her. He would stop the world, he would shout it out and scream until he bled. Her lips parted slightly as he leaned down to drink her in, his eyes darted from her eyes to movement at the edge of the room._

_The crooner was interrupted by the chiming of a large clock at the center of the bandstand. That had not been there before. Jareth straightened, looking at it as he danced. The crooner sang on but he wasn't heard over the sound of the clock. It was a strange clock with 13 numbers instead of 12. The clock rang at twelve. Twelve chimes filled the air and Jareth stepped away from the woman in red. The clock rang out twelve crashing chimes and Jareth's eyes grew wide. _

_He wasn't suppose to be here. The crowd pressed around him, staring at him as he walked backwards. The look on the woman's face was sad and shocked. He turned away to find he was at a wall. It was slightly concave, and glassy. He put a hand to it. It was cold. The clock kept chiming, loudly. He looked around and saw a candelabra stand. He gripped it and swung it at the wall. He didn't know why he did this. _

As sudden as a bubble bursting, the room started quaking violently. People screamed, chandeliers dropped, crashing to the ground and spraying glass across the floor. The world was literally falling down. And so was Jareth. He fell through the air faster and faster until there was only darkness.


	9. Chapter 9

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 8

Cold sweat covering his body, he sat up in bed. A scream pushed at his lips, but he covered his mouth with his whole hand. His body heaved with breathlessness. It took him a second to calm down and realize he didn't know why he was so panicked. His breath returned to normal as he sat in the darkness of his bedroom, his eyes closed. His hand slowly fell back into the cool sheets. He lay back into his pillows, his eyes still closed. The silence of the room pressed in around him.

There wasn't complete silence, there is no such thing. As he lay still, small sounds reached his ears. First was the dull throb of his heartbeat in his ears, the ticking of his watch on his nightstand, crickets chirruping outside in the garden. Somewhere, a bird called. The song was muffled by the French doors of his balcony that led off his bedroom. He opened his eyes and the darkness had adjusted. He could see faintly through the thin dark.

The soft grayness of the thin curtains that covered the windows of the French doors, the white towel that hung from the door to his bathroom, the hand the slowly brushed across his chest. He looked down at the hand, the dark red nail lacquer of her nails looked black. It was delicate, with long fingers, no rings, slight callusing on the pads of her fingers. He especially felt those calluses when she had her hand wrapped around his…

He took a jagged breath just thinking about it and he could feel the appendage in question stirring. He turned on his side, looking at the sleeping face of an angel. His angel. They had met… at… His forehead scrunched in thought. He couldn't recall the memory. Where had they met? It was… summer? She had been wearing a read dress… hadn't she?

He pursed his lips slightly as he thought. As he did, he looked at her relaxed features. Her slightly heavy eyebrow was curved delicately over her eyes that were green. So green, like the Scottish heather. Or was it like the dark olive green of Grecian olive orchards? Her skin was soft and almost creamy white, her lips were rosy pink. He eyes traveled down to the soft curve of her shoulders and the small hallow at her throat. He loved to press his lips there.

Her dirty pillows, he jokingly called them after they watched _Carrie_ together one night, were perky and soft. He loved those breasts. He had never seen a more perfect pair. Her other hand was resting just across them. They weren't small, but not huge either, soft with my blemishes or stretch marks. The aureoles were the same color as her lips. His own mouth loved both places.

He found that her eyes were open and looking at him. In this light, or lack there of, her eyes were pools of darkness. Her long lashes made her eyes look even darker as she smiled at him.

"Can't sleep?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"Just a bad dream… I think." His voice was equally as soft.

"Oooh, poor baby…" She purred as she moved a hand under the sheets. It slid across his hip and thigh to the half limp member that was laying between his legs.

He gave a little jerk in surprise as her hand closed around it and she started to rub. He didn't move, or couldn't move, as she dragged her nails across the top of it softly, making him moan.

"I could… help you go back to sleep…" She said, her voice still in it's husky purr.

"I…" He gasped, trying to talk. She was squeezing now, a little harder then he was used to. He wasn't sure but he thought he liked it.

She pushed back the sheets and lifted herself up, throwing a leg over his body. She straddled his hips so his member was just touching her buttocks. Her perfectly curved and creamy buttocks. She laughed as she felt his hardening grow at the thought of her buttocks. She ran her hands up over his stomach, across his chest and to his shoulders. She leaned down, her breasts pressing to his chest, as she ran her tongue over his mouth and then slipped it inside.

His own hands were rubbing her legs and hips slowly. Her long, soft, chestnut hair formed a curtain around their faces. He ran his hands to the small of her back, letting them rest as they kissed. He wanted to drink her, sink into her, become apart of her all at once and then ravage her until she could take no more. And he would. He would, right now.

He pulled her off of him and pressed her into the pillows. Her hair made a dark haze around her light face and she smoldered up at him as he pressed his lips to her neck and shoulder. His hands gripped her hips and pulled them up. He pressed his member to her, letting the tip rest at the hot and puckering opening. She tossed her head back a little, smiling. Her legs wrapped around his hips, trying to pull him into her.

He laughed as he started forward but something caught his attention. Something was peeking out from under the curtain of the French doors. His kept his bedroom very neat, the whole house could be a wreck, but this room, no.

He moved away from his angel and slid off the bed. She pushed herself up, staring at him is disbelief. He pulled the curtain away, letting the moonlight flood into the room as he picked up the object. It was red and white striped. He held it up with both hands, the curtain was pulled back enough so the light illuminated the object.

"Baby pajamas?" He said, looking puzzled. He knew no children.

"Baby? Come back to bed… I'm ready…"

"But…" He turned, puzzled. There was no reason for this to be here. He went to the bed and sat, turning on the nightstand light. His angel leaned against his shoulder and reached out to take the pajamas. They were footy pajamas with a little zipper up the front. A name was written on the side of the tag and Jareth saw it as she jerked it from his hands.

"Toby?"

His angel was walking on her knees across the king sized bed to stuff the pajamas out of site. When Jareth uttered the name, she turned to him slowly.

"What…what did you say?"

"Toby…" He was looking down at his hands. They were still poised in the grip, as if the pajamas hadn't been taken away. He turned around to look at her.

"Those are… Toby's." He looked at the pajamas and then back to his angel. No. Not his angel. He stood and took a step backwards, his member wagged a little in it's hardened state. He looked around the room and then went to the French doors. He took the hands in his hands and flung them open, wide.

As he did, sunlight filled the room and the sudden gust of hot wind brushed his naked body.

"TOBY! I'm coming, Toby!"


	10. Chapter 10

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 10

"**How…" She said quietly, as she looked into the crystal. She sat in the window in the highest tower of her castle. She had wove the dreams, trapping Jareth within the world of lust and pleasure that she knew men held so dear. She hadn't really thought all was lost when Jareth threw the peach away. She knew he didn't trust Hoggle. What surprised her was how easy he had fell into the Forgetting Well. It was just… too easy. Yes, It was too easy. He had somehow broken her spell. And now… now he was so close…

* * *

  
**

His head was throbbing as he felt the heat blow sluggishly across his body. Somewhere above him, he heard someone yelling. There was a low moan and he found it was coming from him. The heat was becoming unbearable. It was like laying in a tanning bed that was too hot. He started to move, or at least try to.

"Sir Jareth!" A frantic bark came next to his ear, "Try not to move, at least not too quickly. Peril has been your companion. Thank good my brother was able to fish you out of the waters before you were dragged too far down…"

"Wha… Water?" he said groggily. Oh GOD! He had no time to get Toby back! Toby! He sat up quickly and regretted it. There was no light except from the moon and the brighter light from floating bugs around them. They were like dancing flames. Ludo was waving his arms, swatting at the lights. He bellowed and shook his large hands out, as if he burned them. He did. One of the dancing fires came close and Jareth could see it was a fairy on fire.

"Holy cracker!" He swatted at the flaming fairy himself and it fell away into the pool of water beside him, hissing. The little fairy sputtered in the water, waving it's little arms before drifting under the surface, dead.

Jareth stood, feeling as shaky as a newborn calf and staggered past Ludo, "We have to get…to the city!"

Sir Didymus charged past the both of them, a swarm of fire following him. Jareth felt the swarm brush his arm and his sleeve ignited. He gasped and swatted at it frantically. Ludo closed his large hand over Jareth's burning sleeve and the fire was out. Ludo's eyes watered from pain, but he didn't howl.

"Thanks, Ludo." Jareth said, a little breathlessly.

The swarm of Fire Fairies was almost upon Sir Didymus as the small fox on his sheepdog steed rushed through the trees that were littered with rusted trash. As the fairies crossed into the trees, they suddenly went out and fell to the ground. Jareth took the strange but very opportunistic relief from the dangerous fairies and broke into a sprint for the trees. Ludo followed at his own lumbering run.

Jareth tramped over the twitching fairies as he ran through the woods after Didymus. He didn't stop until he was out of the woods and halfway through a rusty junkyard that was on the outskirts of Goblin City. He could see the city through the tall mounds of rubbish as he stopped to catch his breath. Didymus steered his steed to stand beside Jareth.

"We are at the city! Soon we shall be upon that vile Goblin Queen and retrieve your prize, Sir Jareth!"

"Huzaaah…" Jareth said, panting as he straightened, not daring to take anymore time then he already had to catch his breath. A stitch in his side screamed, but he moved on. The three (four if you count Ambrosias) picked their way through the graveyard of house-hold items, forgotten memories, and rusty metal. They were upon the wall of the city soon enough and after a short walk along the glittery tall wall, they found a gate.

No guard stood post, which Jareth found oddly alarming. If there was no guard, that meant something worse awaited them in the city. Jareth hesitated at the gate as Ludo began to pull it open.

"Wait…" Jareth said.

Ludo turned and Didymus pulled the reins so Ambrosias turned to look at Jareth.

"I don't like this. It feels wrong."

"What choice do we have, Sir Jareth? There is no other way into the city besides the gates."

"That isn't true!" A voice said from nearby. Jareth turned to see a red speck on the wall. Another worm. Jareth kneeled so he was face to face with the red worm. It wasn't the same one he met in the maze, one give away was it was red. This one looked female, it wore a rosy pink skirt around it's middle and a pink bow in it's fluffy red hair.

"You know of a way into the city?" Jareth asked quietly.

"Of course, cutie! There are underground tunnels under the city. Passageways long forgotten by Her Ladyship and her army. Who, may I add, have got the castle surrounded!"

"Perfect…" Jareth said. How was he suppose to face an army with a yeti and a would-be fox knight?

"Can you show us how to get into the tunnels?" Jareth asked.

"Nope, but I can tell you how. The tunnels aren't very safe for my kind." She inches closer to the edge of her little notch in the wall. "Go down the wall a ways and you'll see a grate set at the foot of it. Pry it off and jump down. Go straight and keep going straight. If you come to a fork, take the left. Always take the left. When the ground starts to turn marble, you'll be under the castle. Look for a hatch in the ceiling."

Jareth blinked. For a worm, this one knew it's way around!

"Thank you." Jareth said, relieved, "That is so helpful. Thank you!"

He started to trot down the wall, Didymus and Ludo following close behind. The worm watched them going down the way and she smiled. She turned back to the hole where she had come out from, "HEY GUYS! We got a couple suckers on the way!"

Jareth and his companions were too far away to have heard that they were walking straight into danger. They found the grate and Ludo put his muscle to work. He yanked the rusty grate from the earth, showing Jareth with dirt. He sputtered and brushed dirt from his face. Ludo looked sheepishly away and tossed the grate to the ground. Jareth looked into the hole, "It isn't too deep."

He sat at the edge of the hole, letting his feet dangle down. He slid off and was suspended in mid air for a moment before landing in an inch of what he hoped to God was mud. His shoes squelched nastily. He moved forward just as Ludo came down. The earth shook a little and dust fell over Jareth. Ludo reached up and Ambrosias and Didymus was brought down. The dog made a noise as he was put onto the wet tunnel floor. There was hardly any light, but Jareth could still see as he started forward. The tunnel was wide and tall enough for Ludo was walk through, but he had to hunch down a little, Jareth saw as he looked back.

Jareth trotted down the tunnel, hurrying as fast as he could. The muddy SHLLL SHLLL SHLLL sound his shoes made as he trotted covered up another sound. Didymus noticed it first, "Sir Jareth?"

"What?" Jareth said, panting. He was so tired. His body ached, was sore, and was in need to washing. He couldn't stop, though, no matter what. Toby needed him.

"Sir Jareth, I fear that all is not well. There is a sound…"

"A sound? What's a sound going to do? Probably someone flushing. The way this place smells, it has to be the sewer for the city."

"No… no, Sir Jareth. This sound is different. Like scales on stone…"

As he said this, the faint light in the tunnel was suddenly gone. Jareth stopped, his hands on the wall. There was a faint tremor through the stones of the tunnel and Jareth had a sinking feeling. The worm had led them into something terrible. Something lived under the city.

"I don't have time for this…" Jareth said quietly, almost desperately. He didn't know how much time he had left. The clock in the ball room had rang at 12. He felt his chest heave with the thought of the dream…dreams. Were they suppose to trap him? Be a prison so he couldn't win? In any case, he could think of it as cheating if the Queen played fair. But she didn't play fair, did she? Not in this whole sick game. He turned to the other, his eyes searching the darkness for them.

"Alright, well, whatever it is, we need to keep going. I don't know if that worm lied to us or-"

"She did." A light bobbed ahead of them and Jareth turned back, blinking at the sudden lightness. Hoggle hobbled down the tunnel with a lamp held high.

"Hoggle?"

"Yah. I didn't come to apologize or nothin'. It's just I've been thinkin', and… anyway. I was coming to really help. That worm is bad news. The Red Worms live on the wall and send unsuspectin' travelers into these tunnels to feed their mother."

"M-mother?" Didymus said quietly, "I don't remember ever hearing of this peril of the city…" He said a little uncertainly.

"It's a little known danger. Most people don't use this gate by the junk yard."

Jareth rubbed his forehead, "I'm running out of time. Hoggle, can you get me into the castle?"

"Of course. Follow me."

They followed the dwarf down the tunnel, through passageways, not taking any lefts as the worm indicated. The whole time, an eerie feeling lay around them like a thick blanket. A rumbling was always shaking the walls, shaking dust from the ceiling onto them. Once, Jareth thought he heard a roar.

"Did… did you hear that?" Jareth asked, looking over his shoulder. Hoggle looked back and his face paled, "She found us."

"What!" Jareth turned fully now. Didymus pulled his steed up to a stop and Ludo paused, but didn't move.

Hoggle set his lamp down inside one of the passageways of a fork, just ahead of them. Hoggle pulled on Jareth's hand and led him into the other tunnel, "Keep going. You're almost there. There's a grate in the wall a few yards into this tunnel. It will lead you up into the garden. From there, you can get into the castle. Be careful! There are always patrols out, especially when we have runners in the Labyrinth"

Didymus and Ludo were already heading down the tunnel, having squeezed by them as Hoggle spoke.

"What are you going to do?" Jareth asked.

"Confuse her. GO!"

Jareth followed Ludo into the darkness, but took one look back to see a pair of glinting red eyes in the darkness down the tunnel they had just came out of. As the fleeting light from Hoggle's lamp hit it, Jareth could see the face of the mother. It seemed to be made of needles. Long red needles that danced up and down as the giant worm the size of the tunnels it moved through slid after the light into the other tunnel.

"Sir Jareth! We found the grate!"

"You brave little bastard…" Jareth said quietly as he turned back to the others, "Alright. I'm coming."


	11. Chapter 11

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 11

**She stood at the on top of the highest tower of her castle, looking down at the gardens. She could see him and his so called friends in the moonlight. Behind her, a clock ticked closer to thirteen hours. The moon was large and full, hanging over the gardens as it usually did, as if hanging from a string. She turned her face up towards it and closed her eyes, opening her arms up, as if she would just fly away into the moonlight. Palms up and towards the heavens, she rolled her head back, her eyes closed.**

"… **No haven for this heart, no shelter for this child in mazes lost, heaven keeps us apart, a curse for every…mile…of ocean…crossed…" **

**Her voice was low and melodic, power building around her. A rumble started at the back of the castle. She relaxed her body and looked down at the gardens, smiling as she watched.**

Ludo had pushed Didymus and his steed up through the hole and then Jareth. As Jareth came up through the grate hole, he was shocked to the point of speechlessness. Hadn't Hoggle said they would come up into the gardens? Is this what the gardens are like in the Labyrinth? He slowly pulled himself up onto the sandy earth of what he thought was a garden. Didymus and his dog/steed was no where to be seen. He turned towards the hole to find Ludo but the hole was gone.

Jareth paused, looking around the odd place. This had to be a trap. Another cheat by the so called Goblin Queen. He took a few steps forward. He was standing on a stretch of white beach. He looked behind him again, the sandy beach stopped at a shear cliff that went up, up, and up, disappearing high into the low gray clouds. Turning back to stare out across the vast glassy sea that was as still as a mirror. The water did not lap at the sand, it just touched it. Jareth turned around then called out.

"LUDO! DIDYMUS!"

There was no call back to him from his friends, no echo from his call, no sound from the ocean, not even a crunching from his feet on the sand as he walked down the beach. This was an illusion, it had to be. A trick to waste his time, trapping him and Toby in the Labyrinth forever.

"Git…" he muttered as he walked, "Great bloody whorish git."

After a couple minutes of walking, he knew he was getting nowhere. He was getting nowhere and he was almost out of time! He started running, as fast as he could. Still, the beach went on, nothing changed. He sighed, frustrated, turning in a circle, then stopped. There was something on the water.

He squinted as the something grew into a dot. It came closer to him and as soon as he could see it, he wasn't surprised. This was her world, her creation, she was bound to make an appearance. He narrowed his eyes as he watched Queen Sarah walk across the waters. Her hair flowed freely down her back like chestnut silk. She wore a gray flowing dress that was like it was made of water, it was slit up the middle, stopping at her thighs leaving her legs were bare, her feet were bare, the dress was cut low, but it had long sleeves like sails and she wore gloves of the same color. She was smiling. He didn't like that.

"Hello, Jareth!" She called. She stopped a few yards from him, still standing on the glassy calm water.

"What do you want." He bristled.

She smiled sweetly, "Now lets be nice, I am offering you a bargain. You stop this little… whatever it is you're doing, I send Toby home, but you stay. How does that sound?" She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side, raising her eyebrows.

He had to suppress a sigh. She knew what made her look good and she used that knowledge well. Very well. She was so deliciously beautiful, he could spend days just exploring her body before actually making sweet love to it. And how sweet it would be when he did…

He shivered and her smile grew, "Is that a yes, Jareth?"

"No. It isn't. I want my nephew and I want out of this insanity."

She frowned, pouted actually. Her bottom lip pouched out and her eyes grew big and wet, "You're so cruel. I offer you the world and you stomp on it. Well, I can't say I didn't try."

She shrugged and drew a hand up from her hip. One of those evil little orbs rested in the cradle of her fingers. He took a step back, his hands jerking as if to come up to protect him. She smirked and tossed the ball gently to him. It landed on the beach, rolling softly, creating a little trough. As the ball rolled, the trough filled with sea water. Jareth stepped back, but the ball kept rolling, and more water came with it. Sarah tilted her head to the side, smiling cruelly now. The waters came as the ball came closer to Jareth.

Suddenly, he felt pain in his face. He put a hand to it as his eyes watched the water. He brought his hand down and saw blood. His eyes went from the blood to the water. He had her now. He looked up at her and smirked is own roguish smirk that got him in trouble a few times in school. He put it foot out and stopped the ball. The waters sloshed over his foot as he bent down and picked the orb up. It was heavy and magnified the lines of his hand. The waters sloshed around his ankles and still rose higher and he tossed the orb up in his hand.

She frowned as she watched him press his back to the wall of the cliff. He held the orb up to her, then turned his hand, bringing the orb against the cliff. The ball shattered as the waters rose to his knees. Sarah frowned as the air around her and him swirled. The waters retreated behind her, leaving her standing on nothing. The cliff shrank, leaving him standing on the grassy earth.

He closed his eyes and opened them again. Grass? He looked up into the faces of Ludo and Didymus. Didymus kept looking over his shoulder and Ludo smiled, at least, Jareth thought he smiled.

"Jaaareeeeth aaaawaaaaaake!"

"Sir Jareth! It is about time! By the heavens, do you sleep this much at your dwelling? Up with you, lad! We are in grave danger and your time is almost up! Awaken so we may storm this castle! RRRRRWRF!"

Jareth wincing. He looked down at his feet, seeing he had seemingly walked away from the hole a few feet and just stopped. He was in a trance, Didymus had slapped him to wake him up. His hand was bloody, pieces of glass still embedded in it, the legs of his pants up to his knees were soaked in salt water, his head pounded and as he looked around the scraggly garden and the hole they had seemingly crawled out of, he also saw the army of goblins marching their way.

"We will fight for the Right as one! AMBROSIAS! Where are you? We shall charge them down!"

Didymus went on barking and hopping for a fight. Jareth stood, looking from the army to the castle. They were so close!

"We need a diversion." he said, looking around.

Ludo looked around too, "Jaaareth neeeeed heeeelp?"

Jareth turned to Ludo, "Yes, I do, Ludo."

"Rooocks frieeeends." Ludo said then turned his head up to the sky and started singing. It wasn't exactly singing, it was more of a rise and fall of notes that sounded as if the very ground was breaking open. At first that's what Jareth thought was happening. The ground shook, trees around them lost what little leaves that had. Was it the marching of the goblin army that was coming ever closer to them?

It was an army alright, but an army for their side. Jareth saw the goblins setting up cannons. Calls of, 'FIRE!' echoed in the air around them and spiky cannon balls landed in the soft earth, exploded. Clods of dirt rained down on the three would-be heroes. Jareth covered his head from the raining dirty as Didymus found his doggy-steed and mounted him.

"AWAY! AWAY AMBROSIAS! We will charge the cowards… down?"

The army was breaking up, Jareth could hear them yelping and crying out. Ludo stopped singing, turning to the others, "Weeee gooo get Tooooby."

Jareth laughed as he saw rocks spilling through the army. Large boulders, tiny pebbles, fist sized rocks, all bowling through the ranks of the army of goblins and devastating them. Jareth slapped Ludo on the small of his back, because that's all he could reach,

"Good show, Ludo!"

"My brother! You can call the very rocks?"

"Sure," Ludo said with his yeti smile, "Rocks frieeeends."

Jareth laughed and started running to the castle as fast as his legs would take him.

* * *

A/N: Ohhh, we're almost to an end with this story and I hope you all enjoyed reading it!


	12. Chapter 12

The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 12

Up the castle steps and into the quiet castle they went. The army had been almost obliterated by Ludo's rocks. Many of the ramshackle houses were destroyed, several were smoking or on fire from overturned stoves. Goblins ran hither and dither scattering chickens, trying to get away from the rolling stones as Jareth, Ludo, and Didymus slipped by them to enter the castle.

They ran through the large doors and right into what Jareth was sure was the throne room. He looked around at the empty cavernous room. Chickens were scattered here and there along with beer steins, straw, and scraps of food. It stank like a barn and Ludo put a hand over his nose. Jareth looked around, confused. He was sure he was at the right place. This had to be it.

"Sir Jareth!" Didymus pointed to a large clock that seemed suspended in the air. The hands were almost at 13.

"Oh God…" Jareth said. He spotted a staircase hidden behind the throne. That had to be it, the way to Toby. He started towards it, Didymus and Ludo following him. He turned to them and held up a hand, "Wait."

"Jaaareeethhh?" Ludo asked.

"Sir Jareth, you do not wish us to come?"

"It isn't that I don't wish it, Didymus. I think… I have to do this one my own. I got Toby into this…"

"Didymus nodded, "I understand, Sir Jareth. The knight on his lone quest for forgiveness. But… if you need us… we are here for you. All you have to do is call."

"Jaaareeettthhh frrrriiiiiiiend."

Jareth smiled to them then started, "Here." He pulled the tangle of jewelry from his belt, "If you see Hoggle… tell him he's a good man and that I thank him for his help."

"I will, Sir Jareth. Good luck." Didymus took the tangle.

Jareth turned, pausing and closed his eyes. They had helped him with so much. He shook his head and sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time, which was difficult. The stairs spiraled tightly around and around, making Jareth dizzy. He lurched forward and missed his step. His ankle twisted and he sprawled into the ground, skidding forward across a glassy floor. He blinked in surprise and stood slowly. His own reflection stared back at him. He took a few tentative steps forward, his ankle throbbing wondering what had happened. He looked around, the stone step turned to glass. He knelt and tapped a knuckle on the floor. Glass, very strong and thick glass. He stood and put a hand out.

He could tell by the shadows that he was walking down a long hallway, but with the way the glass was cut, it was hard to tell where the walls stopped and started. He walked slowly, keeping his hands in front of him and stopped at what looked like the end of the hall. It was a dead end. He turned and found his pathway was gone, he was in a small box of glass. A shadow passed on his left side and he turned, arms out. His heart hammered, was this yet another trap? A cheat? Another shadow passed to his left and Jareth fell forward. He clattered to the stony floor. He gasped, his knees hitting the floor. He winced as he stood, pushing the hair from his eyes and then gasped again.

The room was massive, if it was really a room. Millions of steps, archways, staircases… was a life sized version of the Eshier painted that filled the elevator at home. He couldn't wrap his brain around it, the way this place was built, it was impossible.

"You have turned my world, you precious thing." Sarah voice echoed around him.

Jareth turned, feeling dizzy, his eyes couldn't focus here. He heard the clacking of heels on stone and felt something brush his shoulder. He turned and stumbled into a wall. She was standing next to him, wearing a pair of tight dove gray pants and a red leather vest that looks like armor. She stared at him before turned and walking down a short landing that led to stairs that ended in the ceiling.

She turned, pointing at him, angry, "You starve and near exhausted me. Everything I've done… I have done for you!"

"Who asked you to!" he shot back, trying to regain some balance.

"I move the stars for NO ONE!"

He staggered forward as she fell backward off the landing. He gasped and looked over the edge. He watched ash she calmly walked down a flight of stairs, Toby in her arms.

"TOBY!"

Jareth started down a flight of stairs, only to lose his balance and tumble. He landed at the bottom, his lip bloody and bruised from the sharp stone corners of the steps. He staggered up and raced up another flight. Up and down and down and up, when he thought he had her, she was on the other side of the room, or upside down above him. He stopped, gritting his teeth. He was bent over, panting, blood from his lip dripping on the ground. She stood across a large gap on another platform, Toby sitting at her feet playing with one of the crystal orbs she loved to play with.

"You bloody teasing…" He said as he straighten, his back creaking. She was smiling. She had the nerve to smile as he stood bleeding, bruised, battered, sweating, cold from the salt water drying on his clothes…

He started to jog and then run, using what little room he had. Closing the distance and then passing it, he leapt out into the empty air between his landing and hers. He hung, suspended, for a fraction of a second before falling. He scrabbled desperately towards Toby but Toby melted away, like sand in the wind.

He fell, but not like a stone, more like through thick water. It was slow and deliberate. The steps and landings around him starting breaking apart. The whole world around him crumbled and he landed in the middle of the rubble. He landed softly, confused. The big clock that had teased him his whole journey sat in the air, both hands on 13.

"You've come so far only to fail."

He twisted as she walked from the shadowed archway. She wore a dark cloak made of glossy crow feathers. Her eyes glistened as she stopped a few lengths away from him.

"I did not fail. I ran your maze. You tripped me up over and over, you cheating wench. But I made it! I made it to your castle beyond the goblin city! Now give me Toby!" He took a step forward.

She didn't move, "You failed, Jareth."

He frowned, his anger boiling, "What is this? What this… POX! POX POX POX! Fucking Bloody POX!" He turned, gripping the sides of his head, "What!" he said, turning back to her, "We have a deal. I ran your labyrinth, I made it here before the clock struck 13! I found Toby, but you kept pulling him away." He was pointing at her, jabbing his finger as he yelled.

She calmly walked around him to the clock. She placed a hand on it and the clock melted away. A large mirror hung, reflecting everything, except her, she stood to the side, out of the mirror's eye. He stared at it, unable to understand. He didn't understand a lot about this place. He strode forward, "Another trick."

"No." She said quietly. "This wasn't about Toby. You failed him as soon as you wished him away. All your life has been leading up to this. You always thought you were better. I know you, Jareth. You take it like a man but deep down. So deep down you are just a sad little boy."

He narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of what she was saying, "I… this has nothing to do with our deal. Give me Toby."

She smiled sadly, "You have no power over me…"

Jareth gasped, feeling a stabbing pain shoot through his chest. His arms wrapped around it as he doubled over. She lifted his chin with one gloved finger and pointed to the mirror. He panted, lookup at the silvery glass. She moved away from him as he slowly straightened.

His reflection looked back at him, but it couldn't be him. His hair was longer, in a kind of chopped mullet, silver makeup made his eyes almond shaped, a white feathery cape covered his shoulders. He felt fear but his reflection was smug, snide almost. He raised a hand and the reflection did too, but with more grace and defiance in every movement.

"You… what are you showing me… Please… just give me Toby." He couldn't stop the fear leaking into his voice.

"It was never enough." She continued, "You did what you came here to do. It's finished."

The pain hit him again as he fell to his knees, crying out. He knew she was standing over him. He looked up, tears streaming down his face. She was looking down, her mouth curved in a frown, sadness filling her face like a cloud on a sunny day.

"The…" He gasped.

"The book? What book? You've read hundreds of books, thousands. Oh…" She walked around the back of the mirror and leaned on the other side. She looked him up and down, raking over every bruise, bloody spots on his shirt, the dirt on his pants, his tangle of hair, and back to his mis-matched eyes, "You think this is suppose to go as the book goes? What is this? A movie? Happy Endings? You take Toby out of here and all will be well? No… No, Jareth. It doesn't work that way."

She was on him before he could blink, gripping her collar and dragging him to the mirror. He flinched when he saw the clean and handsomely smug man in the mirror, but Sarah was different, she was small, meek, with defiantly beautiful eyes. Her hair was long and chestnut. The two reflected were total opposites, just like Jareth was to the man he stared back at.

"THIS!" She screamed as she shook his collar, "THIS IS HOW ITS SUPPOSE TO BE!"

"I don't understand!" Jareth struggled, "You crazy bitch. Let me go!"

She did, pushing him to the ground, looking at the girl in the mirror, "Everything is coked up here. Never how it's suppose to be. This place is falling apart at the seams and because of one simple…twist of fate…"

Jareth rolled onto his back, his arm throbbing, but his chest was on fire. He was sure a rib was broken. Her face appeared over his, "I will fix this. I had to keep you occupied while I worked my magic. It's finally finished. With every drop of blood you shred through the labyrinth, with every person you met, you left pieces of yourself and sewed the seeds."

She gently caressed his face, "You have no power over me." She said again and the pain shot through Jareth, making him scream.

"You have no POWER OVER ME!" She said, screaming the last words.

Her scream was over taken by his as he writhed on the floor. He convulsed on the ground, his body rigid as he jerked. Sarah planted a hand beside his head and threw a leg over him as he calmed, growing still. She hovered over him and pressed her body close, pressing her lips to his ear, "You have no power…over…me…" She whispered.

Jareth's eyes grew wide as everything end dark.

* * *

A/N: R&R!! Ok, So I said this was the last chapter, but it didn't turn out that way! Enjoy!


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